UPDATE: Nov. 5, 2:15 p.m.
The Champaign County Clerk’s office has withdrawn its motion to extend voting hours from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. Voting will officially end at 7 p.m., according to Champaign County State’s Attorney Julia Rietz.
The motion was originally filed to make up for the issues that stopped voting systems from working for approximately two hours this morning but was withdrawn due to concerns over provisional ballots being counted.
“The process would require more paperwork at the time, which could cause longer lines and delays, and then the counting process is different and is open to more possibility for objections and litigation,” Rietz said.
Rietz said as long as voters get in line at a polling station by 7 p.m., they can vote.
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UPDATE: Nov. 5, 1 p.m.
Champaign County Clerk Aaron Ammons filed a motion with the Champaign County State’s Attorney Julia Rietz and the Assistant State’s Attorney Andrew Bequette requesting permission to extend polling hours until 9 p.m.
“For a period of approximately two hours … voters were unable to vote in Champaign County on Election Day due to connectivity issues with Platinum, the County’s vendor for election services,” Ammons wrote in the motion.
Ammons wrote the county worked to address the issues promptly, and he asked the Champaign County Sixth Judicial Circuit to allow an extension of voting hours to “maintain the status quo” and allow voters to exercise their rights.
“No one will be harmed by an extension of voting hours but, as stated, the harm if individuals cannot vote is irreparable and devastating,” Ammons wrote.
The county clerk requested a hearing with the court to discuss the motion “as soon as possible,” but at the moment, the time of the hearing is unknown.
UPDATE: Nov. 5, 8:03 a.m.
“It’s back up and running,” said Champaign County Clerk Aaron Ammons. “We’ve been able to pull up voters.”
Nov. 5, 8 a.m.
The Champaign County voting system cannot verify voters, according to polling workers at various locations.
Polls opened throughout Champaign County at 6 a.m., including at the University. However, the polling system that checks registration, prints ballots and counts votes has been down countywide and in Sangamon County, according to Election Protection volunteer Christina Nordholm.
Champaign County Clerk Aaron Ammons has requested the state attorney extend voting hours to make up for the time the systems are nonfunctioning.
After waking up at 5 a.m., Zainab Memon, sophomore in Engineering who was near the front of the line to vote, only had one word when asked for a comment: “Tired.”
Polling station workers are implementing a manual process to register voters with mixed success.
“They found a workaround,” Nordholm said.
According to Nordholm, in the few minutes before the shutdown, lines were already moving slowly because unregistered voters had to register. As of 7:36 a.m., only seven voters made it through the line despite the Illini Union opening at 6 a.m.
“There are more than 300 people in line here at the Illini Union, and I can presume that there are long lines in all the other voting locations,” Nordholm said.
