Election Day '24: Hearing Scheduled to Extend Voting Hours in Champaign County | News

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URBANA – A hearing on extending voting hours in Champaign County is scheduled for 1:30 p.m. today.

Judge Ben Dyer will hear a request this morning from Champaign County Attorney Julia Rietz to extend hours following problems at polling places.

The general rule is that polling stations open at 6 a.m. and remain open to all voters until 7 p.m

System failures that resulted in inoperable voting machines at polling places across Champaign County were resolved shortly after 8 a.m., Clerk of Court Aaron Ammons said.

To make up for time lost due to the morning system disruptions, Ammons said his office is “working to extend voting hours until 9 p.m.”

Voters waiting in line at several locations earlier today said they were told by election officials that technical difficulties had delayed the process. In some cases, those in line left because it was unclear how long it would take to resolve the situation.

Ammons blamed the problem on the county's “salesman.”

Colleen and Mark Ruebke of rural Urbana went to the Somer Township Building to vote just after 6 a.m. “and there seemed to be a problem. They said the polling station was closed at the moment.”

Colleen Ruebke said election officials took her contact information and indicated they would be in touch once the issues were resolved.

“It was very frustrating,” she said. “We're retired, so we don't have to go to work. I feel sorry for the people in line who said they couldn’t wait any longer and had to go to work.”

St. Joseph's Sterling Frye visited three polling locations this morning – to no avail. He had to go to work in Champaign and said he hoped to vote later today.

“Really frustrating,” he said. “I usually vote early, but this year I wanted to stick it out and actually vote on Election Day. If I do that, it will be taken away from me.”

To date, nearly 52,000 voters have already cast their ballots in the general election, Chief Deputy Clerk Angie Patton told The News-Gazette. That's more than half the total number of voters the last time the president participated in the election (96,185 in 2020).

Tuesday's glitch was reminiscent of disruptions in 2022, when connection problems and server performance slowed voting at some polling stations. At the time, Ammons attributed the problems to the district's supplier being the target of cyberattacks.

“I understand this is incredibly frustrating, but it is important that everyone maintain their commitment to exercising their right to vote,” incumbent state Sen. Paul Faraci, D-Champaign, told The News-Gazette Tuesday morning. “…I encourage everyone to stick with it because every voice counts.”

His Republican opponent had a different opinion.

“I can’t believe we have this problem,” Jeff Brownfield said. “There was a similar problem a few years ago. This should not be acceptable to our community.”

Another issue — power outages due to overnight storms — left voters in attendance at the Hays Center in west Champaign unable to cast ballots early on Election Day.

According to Ameren's outage map, power went out around 8:15 a.m., affecting at least 400 customers. Operations are not expected to resume until 10:15 a.m

Counties

Other county offices are not reporting problems similar to those in Champaign County.

In Ford County, County Clerk Amy Frederick said, “We are ready to go and all is well.”

She said 880 early votes were cast, which was “just a little bit lower” than the last presidential election.

“2020 was just ridiculous, and this was ridiculous,” Frederick said.

In Douglas County, County Clerk Judi Pollock said there were no voting issues today.

“We’re spot on,” Pollock said. “We have no problems with champagne.”

A total of 1,600 early votes were cast in Douglas County, which she said will be “right on track to where we were in 2020, which is very busy.”

In Piatt County, a spokeswoman for the county clerk's office said there were no problems with voting.

The speaker said she didn't have time to talk about early voting numbers.

In DeWitt County, Deputy Clerk Sherry Wilson said there were no problems at the office. As for the number of early voters this year, she said she didn't have exact numbers.

“It's a lot. Over 1,000,” Wilson said. “It’s more than 2020.”