Long Lines Delay Results from Some Precincts

By Kenny Reiter
@RedLineProject

Posted: Wednesday, Nov. 5, 2014

A crowd of more than 300 voters waited in the basement of 69 W. Washington well after polls closed Tuesday night.

Everyone in line by 7 p.m. was allowed to cast his or her vote. This is the first election under the new grace period voting referendum, which allows for voter registration right up to the last minute. Officials ushered those taking advantage of grace period voting upstairs to wait in yet another line before they could register and vote.

By 8 p.m., some of the voters had been waiting in the Chicago Board of Elections’ basement line for 2 1/2 hours, according to the Chicago Sun-Times.

Some locations in northern Cook and Lake counties, as well as Rogers Park, were open until 9 p.m. because of technical issues. 

But some of the longest lines were in the Welles Park neighborhood, where some voters waited for hours and didn't cast their ballots until 3 a.m.

In fact, some voters were tweeting to the hashtag #cantvotechicago throughout the night.

The election where #cantvotechicago became a thing: http://t.co/g0sTmj73Ho via @YouTube

— Sun-Times Video (@CSTvideo) November 5, 2014

2:40am, just cast my ballot! #cantvotechicago #wellespark #vote2014 #Decision2014

— Sara Waller⚓ (@saraballer) November 5, 2014

This Data/Chicago project made possible by 
a journalism grant from the Robert R. McCormick Foundation

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