Will has 3,600 early voters, receives nearly 25K mail-in ballots
More than 3,600 ballots have been cast at the Will County clerk’s office in Joliet since early voting began there Sept. 24.
The clerk’s office also sent out 111,998 mail-in ballots that day to voters who requested them, and more than 24,300 had been returned as of noon Monday, said Charles Pelkie, chief of staff for Clerk Lauren Staley-Ferry. In 2016, more than 30,000 people requested to vote by mail.
The first day of early voting saw more than 700 voters come to cast ballots, and since then an average of 400 to 500 voters have come each day, Pelkie said.
Nine election judges, split into groups of three will work on mail-in ballots, Pelkie said. The teams open the outside envelope and inspect the voter’s signature on the inside envelope. If the signature does not match voter registration records, or if it is missing completely, the voter is contacted by mail and given an opportunity to show identification so their ballot can be counted, he said.
The flood of mail-in ballots prompted Staley Ferry to add a second day to the first central count, which was scheduled for Oct. 11. Election judges now will work Saturday and Sunday to open envelopes and feed ballots into tabulators.
The tabulators will store the ballots and vote counts, which will be downloaded on Election Day, Pelkie said. The clerk’s office has additional central counts for mail-in ballots scheduled before Election Day.
Pelkie said the clerk’s office has received no complaints about mail-in ballots and that in-person early voting has gone well.
“It’s a smooth process and the lines are moving quickly,” he said.
While the bulk of the 24,300 mail-in ballots that have been returned were sent through the U.S. Postal Service, Pelkie said roughly 1,000 to 1,500 ballots are collected each day from eight drop boxes:
■ Will County clerk’s office, 302N. Chicago St., Joliet.
■ Fountaindale Public Library, 300 W. Briarcliff Road, Bolingbrook.
■ 95th Street Library, 3015 Cedar Glade Road, Naperville.
■ Frankfort Public Library, 21119 S. Pfeiffer Road, Frankfort.
■ Governors State University, 1 University Parkway, University Park.
■ Plainfield Public Library, 15025 S. Illinois St., Plainfield.
■ White Oak Library, 121 E. 8th St., Lockport.
■ Wilmington Public Library, 201 S. Kankakee St., Wilmington.
For security purposes, the library drop boxes are all indoors and the Governors State University box is inside the university’s main building. The drop box outside the clerk’s office is under camera surveillance. Clerk employees retrieve ballots twice a day.
In-person early voting continues at the clerk’s office and will begin at satellite locations beginning Oct.
19.
For locations and hours go to www.thewillcountyclerk.com and click on elections, then early voting.