Virus fears lead election judges to drop out

Chicago, suburban officials race to find new polling places

City and suburban election officials are scrambling to find new election judges and polling places after they opted out of Tuesday’s election amid fears about the spread of the new coronavirus.

The hunt for replacements unfolded Friday afternoon as Chicago election commissioners won a court order to keep early voting sites open on Tuesday if needed. The sites have an ability to handle multiple ballots from different precincts.

It was a rare spot of good news for voters, however. About 850 election judges told Cook County Clerk Karen Yarbrough’s office they would not show up — more than 10% of those had signed up for the job, spokesman James Scalzitti said Friday.

“There’s always going to be election judges who don’t show up on Election Day,” Scalzitti said. “But we’ve never had anything like this before. We’ve never had so many people cancel days before an election.”

Many election judges are retired seniors, a group of people who are among the most vulnerable to COVID-19. To that end, Scalzitti said his office was conducting two additional training classes for election judges on Friday, after using social media to seek more of them. That effort targeted 18- to 24-year-olds. The lure: a $200 stipend.

And if that doesn’t bring enough new judges into the fold, Yarbrough is planning to shift some of the office’s 140 election technicians — who had been slated to field phone calls from voters and polling places having problems — to polling places.

Chicago Board of Election Commissioners spokesman Jim Allen said there is great concern over getting enough Election Day judges, and the board continues to look for more, while providing any new ones with last-minute, online training.

“We have concerns that some of them won’t call,” said Allen, who did not have a number of those who called off in the city. “They simply won’t show.”

In DuPage County, election judge pay was boosted to $200 a day from $130 to attract additional judges. The hourly rate for judges who don’t work all day was being increased to $15 an hour from $10.

Election officials also are rushing to find new polling places amid fallout from virus fears.

In Chicago, more than 100 out of 1,400 polling places have dropped out, mostly in nursing homes, senior centers, private businesses and apartment buildings, Allen said.

On Friday afternoon, the downtown Aqua building was off the list after a case of COVID-19 was reported, Allen said.

That also may knock out another nearby site, because it’s linked to Aqua by a pedway, he added.

Elections officials are working with Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot and other city officials to replace those polling places with government building locations.

In suburban Cook County, nearly 100 of the 999 polling places that were originally scheduled to open have backed out. In many cases, voters from the affected precincts will have to go to their nearest courthouse to vote — with locations in Skokie, Rolling Meadows, Maywood, Bridgeview and Markham, Scalzitti said.

Updated information for suburban Cook County voters was posted on the clerk’s website.

Scalzitti said early voting hours will be extended on Saturday and Sunday, with polls open from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m., instead of closing at 5 p.m.

Most early voting locations still are scheduled to close at 5 p.m. on Monday, however. Exceptions include the so-called super site at 69 W. Washington St. in the Loop, and some locations in Arlington Heights, Calumet City, Cicero, Evanston and Oak Lawn that will stay open until 7 p.m.

Meanwhile, instead of holding special early voting at 113 suburban Cook nursing homes on Friday, the county offered mail-in ballots to residents at those locations.

In DuPage County, 14 polling places were being relocated to the County Fairgrounds, at 2015 Manchester Road in Wheaton.

And places with vulnerable populations, like residents of long-term and senior living facilities, were being provided mail-in ballots.

The central early voting place at the County Building at 421 N. County Farm Road in Wheaton is scheduled to stay open until 8 p.m. through Monday.

DuPage voters were being encouraged to check the county’s website regularly for updates.

Will County officials, meanwhile, were expanding early voting hours at six locations, while six polling places have changed.

Meanwhile, the online mail-in ballot application deadline was extended by seven hours until midnight Thursday, and many folks took advantage of that, Allen said. In all, the Chicago elections agency received 117,813 mail-in ballot applications — a new record that is more than three times the number from the 2016 presidential primary.

As of late Friday, 110,000 people had voted early in the city, which is about 5% ahead of the primary four years ago.

In suburban Cook County, about 115,000 residents had voted early by Saturday morning, topping the record for a presidential primary. Another 8,472 mail-in ballots had been returned by Friday. A total of 31,409 were cast in the 2016 primary.

Still, Allen expected voter turnout to be down overall.

“I think it’s fair to say that the events of the last week — including the World Health Organization declaring a pandemic — are going to affect turnout negatively,” Allen said. “I don’t think we see a surge in early voting because people want to see our fancy new envelope.”