Early Voting Update

There's been some election related news lately, from the new County Clerk taking office with an election right away, to avoiding hours long winding staircase lines for students. From WCCU Tuesday:

The Champaign County Clerk is reminding residents how important local elections can be.

"Your local elected officials are the ones you are going to bump into at the bank or at the store. The ones you can walk into their office and have a conversation with and make sure they really understand what is your concern or your idea,” said Aaron Ammons, Champaign county clerk.

So far, Ammons said about 400 absentee ballots have been returned and about 200 people have voted in-person in Champaign County...

Starting March 27, the Champaign County Clerk’s Office will extend their hours until 7 p.m. to accommodate voters. Also, eight other early voting locations will open across the county.

Voting in the April 2nd Consolidated Election has already started! If you haven't voted yet, you still have a lot of options. Here are some quick basics (mostly linking to the Champaign County Clerk website):

Still need to register to vote?

Information on Grace Period Registration.


Need to check to see if you're registered to vote in Champaign County?

The County has a Voter Information Lookup page. The State of Illinois has a more general voter registration lookup here if you need it.


Need a candidate guide?

Votechampaign.org has you covered: Candidate Guide.

We had a recent post on candidate forums and meet and greets here.


Need to vote?

Early voting at Brookens Administration Center has already begun (more information here).

Early voting at all early voting locations starts March 27th in just under two weeks (more information here)... including on the first floor of the Illini Union for students concerned about a repeat of the winding staircase lines last year.


Want to vote by mail?

Vote by mail requests are still being accepted online. Applications to vote by mail can also still be requested by phone, mail, or email (more information here). The application is also available on the website to print here with directions. The deadline to apply to vote by mail is five days before the election (or slightly less than two weeks from now).

I haven't spotted any news on voting problems or calamities yet, but it's early, even for early voting. A month ago the new County Clerk, Aaron O. Ammons was assuring voters that they would be ready for this election in spite of some unexpected staff turnover. From the News-Gazette in February:

Tom Kacich | For new Champaign County clerk, 'it's been a learning curve'
Aaron Ammons, about two and a half months into his new job as Champaign County clerk, said the start hasn't been smooth but that citizens shouldn't be concerned about this spring's municipal elections or the preparation of property tax bills...

Soon after he took over Dec. 1, the county clerk's office was down six employees. Ammons said it was a foregone conclusion that his Republican opponent, Matt Grandone, would leave the office, as would former clerk Gordy Hulten and Hulten's Chief Deputy Jeremy Cirks.

But he said he was unprepared for the loss of three other employees almost immediately, plus a fourth who left within a couple of months. He said it was "disheartening" that two of the former employees gave two days' notice and another gave no notice at all...

Slowly, he said, he's filling positions. He's hired an information technology specialist, expects to have a deputy county clerk within a week and is close to hiring a chief of staff. By May he thinks all the positions in the office will be filled...

Although he'll be shorthanded, Ammons said he doesn't expect problems with the April 2 election or with the on-time distribution of property tax bills around May 1.

More at the full article here, which includes more from Ammons on the amazing staff that remained as he focused on preparing.

One early success appears to be working with the University to have student voting in a larger and more accessible first floor area of the Illini Union in future elections (including the Pine Lounge for this election). The previous County Clerk had assured the County Board that better spaces were neither available nor necessary to accommodate student voters prior to the election which resulted in long lines down winding staircases. Whether the changes will be enough to prevent bottlenecks in 2020 remains to be seen.

I've found that the politicos in Champaign County have varying amounts of reasonableness behind their skepticism of the opposite party controlling the County Clerk's Office. The partisan suspicions can be healthy to pressure candidates to prove their claims of fairly managing elections, even if only to avoid feeding the conspiracy theories that often don't need help.

There are some serious disagreements to be had about what constitutes fairness, wise management, and the ethical bounds of a political office that serves all constituencies. Those disagreements may not always fall down party lines in local offices, but they can and often do. These local elections are a first test for County residents to gauge the success or failure of the Democratic change in this office... and whether it will be held by them or flip back to the Republicans.