Early voting delayed in Morgan County and across the state

By Gary Scott on February 7, 2018 at 10:26am

While early voting in Morgan County was scheduled to start tomorrow, there’s currently a delay in the process.

With the March primary elections just around the corner, the early voting option for county resident is currently being stalled caused by a challenge to one of the candidates running for a state position.

The Illinois State Board of Elections informed local election officials yesterday that early voting could now begin in a week or two rather than tomorrow, when it was initially scheduled to start.

Morgan County Clerk Jill Waggener explains the circumstances that are causing the delay, and says that the aforementioned challenge is coming from the Chicago area.

“The delay is due to an objection to one of the attorney general candidates on the Democrat ballot. I’m not really sure who put the objection in against this candidate, but it’s all being done up in Cook County. The original objection was filed and the judge granted the objection last week to remove the candidate,” Waggener says.

The objection that was filed was in regards to Scott Drury, a Democratic candidate running for Illinois attorney general. Waggener says that, after an initial objection, Drury was placed back on the ballot. However, another objection came last week, which the state board of elections is reviewing. Waggener breaks down what’s occurred over the last week, and explains why she’s been forced to delay early voting in Morgan County.

“Then the candidate filed an objection to that ruling and was placed back on the ballot this week, and now there’s another objection to have him removed again. So rather than cause confusion for voters to come in and me possibly giving out an incorrect ballot with that (candidate) on our off, we just decided to hold off. Hopefully this Friday there will be a ruling one way or the other,” says Waggener.

Waggener explains when she expects early voting to start, as well as the other voting options available for local residents.

“I’m very optimistic that by next Thursday, at the latest, we’ll have something available to people who wish to early vote. Should it still be delayed, or I’m not quite prepared yet to move forward, anybody can request a ballot to be mailed to them, and they can turn it back in. But they still have plenty of time to early vote, they can do that up until the day of the election,” says Waggener.

Waggener also says she would like to apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused area residents planning on voting early.