Problem at the Polls? Here’s Who to Call

CHICAGO, IL — Who are you going to call if you spot a problem at your polling place? Well, it depends where your polling place is. But don’t worry, we have you covered here in Chicago and the surrounding area.

In the March primary election, Wheaton College students said they were “threatened, intimidated, and turned away from the polls without a reasonable explanation,” according to ThinkProgress.

“One polling location near the college campus did not allow hundreds of students to register to vote on Tuesday, despite the state’s new same-day registration law, because one election judge claimed it would take too much time to register all of them,” the site said.

Those students should have called the DuPage County Election Commission and reported what was happening.

In October 2014, the Illinois Review — the “crossroads of the conservative community” — reported that “State Representative Candidate Jim Moynihan (R-56), was shocked today when he tried to cast a vote for himself and the voting machine cast it for his opponent instead.

Here’s the Illinois Review’s account of what Moynihan said happened:

“While early voting at the Schaumburg Public Library today, I tried to cast a vote for myself and instead it cast the vote for my opponent,” said Moynihan. “You could imagine my surprise as the same thing happened with a number of races when I tried to vote for a Republican and the machine registered a vote for a Democrat."

That would have been a good time for Moynihan to call the Cook County Election Commission. If something like that had happened in the City of Chicago, though, he would have had to call the Chicago Board of Election Commissioners.

You know where you have to go to vote. Now make sure you have the right phone number with you when you head to the polls, just in case you see something peculiar.

Contacts for reporting polling place problems:

• City of Chicago: 312-269-7870
• Suburban Cook County: 312-603-0236
• Will County: 815-740-4615; voters are also encouraged to send an email through the website thewillcountyclerk.com.
• Kane County: 630-232-5990
• McHenry County: 815-334-0236 on Election Day only, after Election Day call 815-334-4242
• Lake County: 847-377-2400 (county clerk) or 847-377-3000 (state’s attorney)
• Kendall County: 630-553-4157
• DuPage County: 630-407-5600
• City of Aurora: 630-897-4030

Photo via Iconathon