Chicago expanded early voting to each of its 50 wards Wednesday, drawing scores of voters who said they waited hours in lines to cast their ballot early in the general election.
The expansion enables Chicago voters to cast a ballot in person at one of 51 local polling places or to drop off their mail-in ballot in a secured drop box, which are located at every early voting site and 26 public libraries.
“This year I was fired up, I was ready to vote,” said Reenie O’Brien King, 38, who waited a little over an hour in line with her husband and two children at the Welles Park voting site in Lincoln Square. “I was sort of glad there was a line because I hope it means that people are coming out in record numbers.”
Marisel Hernandez, chairwoman of the Chicago Board of Election Commissioners, said the day ran relatively smoothly, with only a few minor machine glitches at two sites that were resolved quickly.
“If we’re good today, it means that we’ll be good for the next two weeks,” she said.
While she didn’t have exact data on the number of early votes by Wednesday afternoon, Hernandez said long lines were inevitable given COVID-19 restrictions. She encouraged voters to “come out on a beautiful day this weekend and early vote so that we can take care of the lines later on next week.”
The early voting locations will remain open from 8:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. Mondays through Fridays, and from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays. The locations of the ward sites can be found at chicagoelections.gov/earlyvoting.
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Other Illinois election jurisdictions, including suburban Cook County and DuPage, Lake, Kane, McHenry and Will counties, plan to expand early voting to more sites on Monday.
Local leaders and representatives from various organizations spoke about Chicago’s expansion Wednesday morning during a news conference in Pilsen, where Hernandez and others stressed the importance of the election and urged residents to vote early.
“Staying at home for this election is not an option,” Ald. Byron Sigcho-Lopez, 25th, said at the conference. “We must be a voice for those who don’t have a voice — those who have been marginalized.”
Since Oct. 1, more than 13,000 Chicago voters already had cast a ballot in person at the Loop Super Site at 191 N. Clark St., which was the first and only early polling site operating in Chicago for about two weeks.
In addition, more than 120,000 people of the nearly 500,000 that applied have returned mail-in ballots, surpassing the city’s previous record of 118,000, reached during the March primary.
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“These numbers are going to increase exponentially now that 51 sites are open,” Hernandez said. She strongly encouraged voters to come out early instead of waiting until the last week leading up to Election Day.
Nathaniel Swift, 45, stood in line at Harry S. Truman College in Uptown with his 2-year-old son, Jack, for about an hour Wednesday morning to vote. He said he arrived about 7:45 a.m. to avoid a long line and said a huge crowd started to gather in line just as the site opened.
Swift said he views this election as the most important one in his lifetime. He’s been voting since 1998, but said this was the only time he felt the need to make a point by voting as early as possible.
“I feel like it’s a statement that I can make as a citizen,” Swift said. “It’s something I can do as an American to express myself. I didn’t want to miss the opportunity to do that.”
Kathleen Prendergast, 70, echoed the sentiment that this election feels especially important. She arrived to vote at Truman College about 7 a.m. and was the third person in line. She counted more than 40 people in line about an hour and a half later.
Wearing a three-layer mask, Prendergast chose to vote in person Wednesday to ensure there would be time to resolve any problems with her ballot. She said the experience ran smoothly, and people in line were chatty and in good spirits as they waited to vote.
“We were all in a really good mood because we felt, OK, people took the trouble to get up early and show up to vote and make sure it works right,” she said. “There were a lot of people … it made me feel happy.”