Forest Parkers visited their local polling places today to vote as the weather dropped to 43 degrees and a drizzling rain began around 1 p.m.
“There was a rush this morning of people on their way to work around 6 to 8 a.m.,” said Precinct 73 election judge Donna Triplett. “Then another rush around 10 a.m.”
At Field Stevenson School, polling place for precincts 73 and 74, election judges got a call from the Cook County Clerk’s Office registering a complaint that campaign signs were planted too close to the entrance to the polling place.
Nine signs for one candidate and two signs for another had to be repeatedly moved by election judges to a distance of 100 feet from the polling place.
“I had to come out here and move them three times,” said Triplett, around 1:30 p.m. “They look OK now.”
Forest Park Middle School/ Field Stevenson, Betsy Ross and Grant-White were marked as polling places with American flags. Students in Forest Park School District 91 had the day off for a teacher institute day.
At Betsy Ross School, judges said more than 300 voters had already arrived by 2 p.m. Lines formed for electronic balloting, but paper ballots were also available.
“Paper is faster,” noted a judge.
Forest Park voters who wanted to vote early had to travel to a neighboring town to do so. The local early voting sites nearby were Oak Park, Berwyn, Cicero, Melrose Park and Elmwood Park.
The Cook County Clerk’s Office did not immediately have a tally of how many Forest Park residents voted early.
