I, too, find these long lines surprising.
The last 2 or 3 times I've gone to vote, there have been 4-6 voting stations and 1-2 voters at them.
In fact, in the past decade, my maximum voting wait time has probably been 2 minutes.

Maybe that's because California has elections all the time and people don't bother to show up due to voter fatigue,
or maybe it is because everybody in my region mails their ballot in far in advance.
Or maybe it is because California's vote is always so lopsided that people don't feel it necessary to show up.

In any case, I'll be very curious to see if there are any lines at all when I go to vote tomorrow.

Perhaps there will be because we have several hotly contested propositions this time. (Gay marriage, and a couple of alternative energy propositions.)