By Townhall Chicago News Staff
Cook County election officials this week opened early voting sites inside several suburban high schools that excluded the general public, allowing only school staff and students to cast ballots on campus.
The arrangement, which covered Buffalo Grove High School and other schools in Township High School District 214 as well as sites in Chicago’s south suburbs, drew objections from Republican officials who said they received little advance notice of the voting locations.
A Republican poll watcher identified only by her first name, Kathy, said she was sent to Buffalo Grove High School on a few hours’ notice after party officials learned of the voting site the evening before. She said staff at the school initially told her poll watchers would not be permitted inside.
“They weren’t allowing poll watchers. They flat out said that,” Kathy said. She said the policy was reversed only after Republican organizers objected. “Even they weren’t quite sure of what to do with me,” she said.
Kathy said 12 school staff members had voted before lunch, while students had not yet begun casting ballots at the time of her report. She said updated name badges worn by election judges no longer displayed party affiliation, making it harder to verify partisan balance among the judges working the site. Election judges, including students, were paid $300 for the day, she said.
State Rep. Martin McLaughlin, R-Barrington Hills, whose 52nd District includes schools involved in the voting arrangement, said the sites were not open to registered voters outside the school population. “This is private. You can’t walk in and vote if you’re a registered voter in Cook County at the high school today,” McLaughlin said.
McLaughlin, who won his last election by 47 votes, questioned why the access was limited to school staff and students rather than extended more broadly. “Why are we sending private voting services to our greatest generation where they’re living? I’m having a problem understanding why 17- and 18-year-olds need private voting but the retirement communities don’t get it,” he said.
Illinois law requires voters to be 18 by Election Day, meaning most high school students at the sites would not have been eligible to vote even if registered.
Cook County has not publicly detailed the criteria it uses to establish on-site early voting locations at schools. McLaughlin said he believed the arrangement raised questions under state election statutes governing equal access to polling locations. Kathy said she planned to return to the school the following day to report on final turnout figures.
