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Eastland Mall Early Voting Experiment Successful

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Both the city of Bloomington Election Commission and the McLean County Clerk's office are pleased with the results of an early voting station at Eastland Mall in Bloomington. Combined, the two jurisdictions saw more than 800 people cast their ballots in the Mall over six weekend days. County Clerk Michael said she's not sure whether the experiment will be renewed and will make the determination whether it is cost prohibitive.

"I'm gonna have to see how the bills come in for this election. Cause with the same day (registration) we had to have some special training and hire probably about a hundred election judges. So, I'm gonna have to see what our bottom line looks like," she said.

Michael says the mall location was also an expense; "We were charged by the mall to be out there. I think it was about $1,500. I'm trying to convince them to donate that for the good of democracy, so we'll work on that for November."

Michael says Indiana has early voting stations, five or six public locations in each election jurisdiction that serve the purpose. She says Illinois is still experimenting, but may end up formalizing something like that.

WGLT Senior Reporter Charlie Schlenker has spent more than three award-winning decades in radio. He lives in Normal with his family.
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