Elections board says mail-in applicants who instead want to vote in person should first wait for their ballots to arrive
Illinois election authorities are asking voters who applied for a mail-in ballot but then decide to cast their vote in person to “allow sufficient time” until their ballot arrives before heading into an early voting location.
Some confusion and delays that occurred during the first two days of early voting this week were attributed to people who had applied to vote by mail, but then showed up to vote in person, according to an Illinois State Board of Elections news release.
“We are asking that voters who have already applied for a mail ballot allow sufficient time for the ballot to arrive,” elections board spokesman Matt Dietrich said in an email.
Election officials throughout the state began mailing vote-by-mail ballots on Thursday to Illinois voters who applied for one and were approved. In-person early voting started that same day in many areas across the state, including at limited locations in DuPage, Lake, Kane, Kendall, McHenry and Will counties. Suburban Cook County and Chicago won’t begin in-person early voting until October.
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Voters in some places experienced hourslong wait times trying to vote Thursday as an unprecedented number of people showed up to polling places to vote early. At locations in DuPage, Will and Kane counties, lines stretched hundreds of people long at various points in the day.
About 1.9 million people in Illinois had applied by Friday for a mail-in ballot, which they can cast by mail, deliver to their local election authority or drop off at a secured drop box location in their area.
If voters applied and were approved for a mail-in ballot, but decide to vote in person instead, they must bring their mail-in ballot with them to an early voting location and surrender it to an election official.
Voters who apply for a mail-in ballot but don’t receive one can vote in person, but must sign an affidavit under penalty of perjury.
“This is intended for situations in which the late delivery imperils the individual’s ability to cast a vote, such as a ballot that hasn’t arrived on or near Election Day,” Dietrich said.
If voters cast a ballot in person after signing an affidavit, and later receive a mail-in ballot, they should discard it. It is a class 3 felony in Illinois to vote more than once in an election.
“In the incidents reported in the last two days, the additional paperwork has caused delays at early voting locations that could have been avoided had the voter waited to allow the mail ballot to be delivered,” Dietrich said. i
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