On 19 May 2024, voters waited outside a school used as a polling station in Santo Domingo during the Dominican Republic’s presidential and congressional elections. Reuters and AP captions directly identify the place, date, purpose and the people waiting to vote. For the day, a school became an entrance to civic participation. Everyone in the line shared the same immediate purpose, even though each ballot could express a different choice. The queue makes visible the physical time required by a democratic procedure: arriving, waiting outdoors and entering when one’s turn comes. It records that election day, not a queue that necessarily exists there now.