Keep in mind that in the US the actual elections are run in a very distributed fashion with the different precincts having a whole lot of authority over their own operations.
Communities tend to basically pick their own people to run their elections, so stories about long lines being voter suppression aren't so clear without some centralized management that would be able to organize that.
It generally seems like some communities simply choose for themselves to put in charge managers who kind of suck. People choosing incompetent administrators for themselves is hardly anything rare especially in the state and local levels.
It might be that we would be better off putting all of our eggs in one basket that could be professionally managed, but that would actually open the door to the corrupt motivations like voter suppression.