Conflicting Reports On Voters Turned Away At Lemont Polling Place

Lockport IL

09 November, 2020

7:10 PM

Description

LEMONT, IL — The Cook County Clerk's Office said it attempted to reach out to voters and others who were unable to vote after a poll worker in Lemont turned away early voters at 7 p.m. on Nov. 2. Patch first reported the story last week when it was made aware of a Reddit comment and Lemont Police confirmed the situation. Patch later spoke to voters who were in line, and they also confirmed that a poll worker announced at 6:30 p.m. that the polling place was closing at 7 p.m. and to come back and vote the next day. Conflicting reports were given on whether all those who were outside the polling place were allowed to vote or whether they were told to go home by police or if they left the line. "On the last night of early voting the Clerk's polling places have always traditionally closed at 5 p.m. so that Election Judges could finish their work and then prepare and convert polling place for election day voting before returning to the polling place by 5 a.m. the following morning," Sally Daly, Director of Communications for the Cook County Clerk's Office, told Patch. "The Governor's expanded voting access legislation in the wake of COVID-19 expanded these hours until 7 p.m. for the Nov. 3 election." Daly said polling places attempted to close by 7 p.m. because election judges also had to clean and sanitize polling places and equipment. "Voters who were inside voting locations by 7 p.m. were permitted to vote," Daly said. "The Clerk's Office did attempt to reach out to voters and others who contacted our office who were unable to vote that evening and, of course, they had the opportunity to vote the following day on Election Day at their local polling place or at one of our seven Super Site locations."