One day they were open. The next day, they were closed. Chicago's two downtown early voting supersites remained shuttered Monday because of a court order.
Board of Elections spokesperson Max Bever said the notice came late Friday night and will require a lot of work before early voting can resume at 9 a.m. on Wednesday.
"Unfortunately, last Friday we got a court order late in the day that asked us to remove a candidate's name from the ballot," Bever said.
“That means we have got to reprint the vote-by-mail ballots that were already printed and ready to go out for our early voting, and we have to re-program those early voting touch screens,” Bever said of the work that has been going on over the weekend.
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The candidate is Orland Park attorney Ashonta C. Rice, who was ordered removed because of a successful challenge to the use of her maiden name on her nominating petitions.
NBC Chicago has reached out to her campaign but have not received a response.
"We do ask that voters have patience while we comply with this court order," Bever said.
According to the Board of Elections, more than 300 ballots had been cast before the order came down. That means any votes for Rice will not be tallied. If a high court reverses the appellate court decision, those "sequestered" votes could be tallied at a later date.
At this stage of early voting, the Board typically expects about two to 300 ballots be cast each day.
The court order will cost the Board tens of thousands of dollars, but it will also cost Chicago voters days on the early voting calendar.
Bever said it also highlights how the election landscape has changed in recent years, instead of the days when the courts and voters could focus on a single election day.
"The popularity of early voting, of vote by mail has really pushed these deadlines earlier," he said.
The Board of Elections plans to open the downtown supersites at 9 a.m. Wednesday morning and get thousands of reprinted Democratic vote-by-mail ballots out as soon as possible.
The Illinois Presidential Primary and associated election days are March 19.
