Pandemic, late primary blamed for 73 precincts going without polling places for June 28 election
Due to ongoing effects of the pandemic, 73 precincts across Chicago will be without an election site for the June 28 primary election.
A Cook County Circuit Court on Friday granted a request by the Chicago Board of Election Commissioners to close the 73 polling places. The board said it hasn’t been able to secure voting locations in those precincts, and it is “unlikely” such replacements will be found before Election Day, according to its complaint filed May 27.
The elimination of those election sites affects about 59,015 registered voters, according to board spokesman Max Bever.
Those voters can still vote early or by mail. Those wanting to vote in person on Election Day will have to go to one of the city’s early voting sites, which will be open from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. on June 28 for same-day voter registration and ballot casting.
In its request to the court, the board wrote that “due to the ongoing challenges caused by the disastrous health and safety pandemic, numerous polling place proprietors have informed the board that they are canceling their participation as election precincts and the board may not use those locations for public voting purposes.”
The board, which conducts elections across more than 2,000 precincts in about 1,500 locations, needed court approval to change election procedures.
The affected voters will receive mailed notices later this week, as well as calls and emails if the board has voters’ contact information, Bever said.
“The board hopes to find new polling places in the precincts ahead of the Nov. 8 general election.”
Securing polling sites has become a greater challenge over the past few election cycles, Bever said, but the board ran into a “perfect storm of issues” for the June 28 election, from accessibility and security issues to traditional polling places opting out due to the pandemic.
Other sites aren’t available in the summer, something that hadn’t been a problem in previous years when the primary is held on its traditional spring date. This year is the first time in decades primaries have been this late in the year, a result of delays in conducting the U.S. census amid the pandemic. Illinois lawmakers had to wait for the census data to redraw districts for government offices.
Chicago’s 51 early voting sites — one in each of the city’s wards, as well as the voting supersite — will operate as universal vote centers on Election Day, open for any eligible Chicago voter regardless of where in the city they live to register and vote.
Election judges for the vacant precincts can be reassigned to another location if they so choose, or they will be relieved from working Election Day.
Of the city’s 50 wards, 24 have at least one precinct with a closed polling site. Fourteen of the precincts are in Chicago’s 42nd Ward, which includes Streeterville, River North and parts of the Loop and West Loop.
For answers to voting questions, check out the Tribune’s election guide.
