More than 890,000 ballots cast in Chicago so far in 2024 elections; few problems reported at polling places
CHICAGO (CBS) -- More than 890,000 Chicago voters have cast their ballots as of 5:00 p.m. on Election Day, including those voting early in-person or by mail, accounting for 59.45% of all of the city's registered voters.
Women voters were outpacing men, with 494,320 ballots cast by women out of 891,028 total ballots cast as of 3 p.m., according to Chicago Board of Elections spokesman Max Bever. The most common age group among voters so far is 25-34 years of age, with 190,330 ballots cast in that age group.
Chicagoans can vote at either their assigned precinct polling place, or at any of the 51 early voting centers open on Election Day across the city. Polls close at 7 p.m., and so far, while many polling places have seen long lines of voters, with waits of up to 3 ½ hours, few other issues at polling places have been reported.
If voters could handle the long lines at some polling places on this Election Day, the rest of the voting process was mostly smooth in Chicago and suburban Cook County, with only a few problems at the polls.
At a precinct polling place in Chicago's 13th Ward, an election coordinator, who supervises election judges at the polling place, was arrested after beating another judge with his cane. That election coordinator was charged with misdemeanor battery.
There was a shortage of ballots in several other wards, including a shortage of ballots written in Polish. Ballots actually are available in 12 languages in Chicago.
Earlier Tuesday morning, there were glitches in the 28th Ward and 2nd Ward, with devices called EPOLL Books. Those are the iPads judges use to register people, and some voters were complaining because they were told they already were listed as voting upon check in when they had not. Those issues have been resolved.
In the 48th Ward on the North Side, the assigned election judges didn't show up at the polling place at an Edgewater church, so new judges had to be sent over.
Cook County officials said there were some minor issues with polling place supplies in the suburbs, but that was all resolved.
So it appears if voters had the stamina to make it through long lines, there weren't that many other problems.