Record Number Of Kendall Co. Residents Are Voting Early

KENDALL COUNTY, IL — A record number of Kendall County residents have voted early leading to the Nov. 3 general election, County Clerk Debbie Gillette told the Kendall County Board during its meeting Tuesday.

"It's higher than it's ever been," Gillette said.

She said that the county has opened up its early voting sites Sept. 24, a week earlier than it has in the past, and also added the Oswego Library's Montgomery campus to the list. Other than this, voting sites are located at the Oswego Village Hall, the County Clerk's office in Yorkville, the Oswego Public Library District's Montgomery Campus and Plano City Hall.

She told Patch that the site at the Oswego Village Hall has been the busiest so far and as of Tuesday morning, 2,900 people voted there. The library saw 1,650 voters and Plano, where early voting began Monday, saw 126 voters.

"I don't know if they've had 126 ever in the early-voting period," Gillette said. "That's a big number for them."

She said the County building had 4,074 voters early with 59 grace period voters who registered and voted on the same day.

As of Monday morning, 8,750 people in the county had voted early and in person. Another 20,287 have requested mail-in ballots. This number already surpasses the 15,408 early and mail-in votes made in the 2016 general election, Gillette told the board.

She told Patch that all voters have been asked to follow safety guidelines issued by state health officials and voters don't feel safe or don't want to wait in lines, they can just vote by mail.

"Voters can only be processed by the amount of people that fit into the voting room," she said.

She also said that unlike some other counties in Illinois, Kendall County will not be adding a feature to its website which could allow voters to track wait times across various sites.

Gillette explained to the board that for now, a rotating team of three judges from both political parties are verifying signatures on mail-in ballots twice a day. But those ballots will not be counted until 7 p.m on Election Day as per the state rules.

While results will begin to be posted online during election night, she said that her office has 21 days after the election to certify its results. Any mail-in ballot postmarked by Nov. 3 must be accepted.

At the board meeting, Kendall County State's Attorney Eric Weis asked voters to not expect to easily vote in person if they've already requested a mail-in ballot. In order to prevent double voting, the clerk's office's computer system does not allow a voter to request a ballot and then also show up to vote. It could cause a "lengthy delay."

Gillette has been fielding questions from voters who are confused about the process in light of the pandemic this year. Weis said she has done a "phenomenal job trying to get all this stuff done for the first time in history."

"Debbie didn't create this election cycle. She didn't create some of the issues that are out there," he said.

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