The head of elections in Bloomington says complaints about campaign signs near polling sites were a frequent problem on Election Day.
Bloomington Election Commission [BEC] Executive Director Luke Stremlau said it's a problem for election judges because there's not much they can do about it.
“I can’t have election judges acting as the sign police because then no one gets checked in and the lines get longer and no one gets to vote,” Stremlau said. “It’s one of those things that’s frustrating on all fronts, from citizenship to the election judge to the election authority, because they know it’s not supposed to be going on and yet the see it.”
Illinois law forbids campaign signs or any electioneering within 100 feet of any polling place.
Stremlau said the problem is there’s no practical way to enforce it. “I can’t stop someone from putting a sign where it shouldn’t go. I can’t take that sign, it’s not my property,” he said.
Stremlau said the commission also has a shortage of Republican election judges.
“It only takes one or two election judges to call off sick before we have to throw a bunch of resources to move around an entire schedule. We like to have people on backup. Typically, we’ve always had plenty of Democratic judges,” Streamlau said, adding the BEC has a roster of about 450 election judges, but some of them haven’t worked in years.
Voter turnout
Both the Bloomington Election Commission and the McLean County Clerk’s Office, which oversees elections in the rest of the county, were pleased with voter turnout on Tuesday.
Turnout in Bloomington was 71.2% as of election day. The McLean County Clerk’s office was 78.6% as of Thursday, as mail-in ballots continued to arrive after Election Day.
Mark Senger, co-director of elections for McLean County, said Illinois State University saw a big increase in early voting this year and that likely alleviated some of the longer lines on Election Day.
“When we got to Bone Student Center, we saw a huge, huge turnout for students during early voting. In years past, we have not,” Senger said.
Lines were still close to two hours at Bone Student Center on Tuesday afternoon for those who had not yet registered. Some students who spoke to WGLT said they were frustrated by the delays.
But there was little to no waiting for those already registered. Lines also dropped substantially later in the evening.
The county added election judges at Bone this year, and ISU opened a second room to alleviate traffic bottlenecks.
Senger said election judges activated an emergency voting tabulator that was on standby and that helped speed up ballot processing and got voters finished faster.
“There was a lot of good attitude. The students were happy, very little complaints,” he said.
Stremlau at the BEC said he’s considering creating a second line for voters who have not yet registered, adding that may have helped reduce voting lines at Hansen Student Center at Illinois Wesleyan University.
The election is essentially over, except for counting remaining ballots sent by mail. Provisional ballots were reviewed on Thursday. Vote canvassing will be done on Nov. 26, when the results are official.
Election officers don’t get much of a break. Next Tuesday, the filing period begins for the 2025 consolidated election that includes school boards, library and park districts and other government bodies.
“Thinking I was going to have a weekend off, no it doesn’t look like it,” Senger quipped.
