From the Daily Herald:

Kane County reports poll delays, seeks voting extension

By Adam Kovac
Daily Herald Staff Writer
Posted Tuesday, November 07, 2006
More than 40 polling sites in Kane County did not open on time this morning, prompting election officials to request a court order to extend voting hours tonight.

The delays were due largely to mechanical problems with getting the county's electronic voting machines up and running, County Clerk John Cunningham said.

He has asked State's Attorney John Barsanti to petition a judge to keep the polls open until 9:30 p.m. “I feel very strongly that everyone who wants to vote gets the chance to vote,” Cunningham said.

At 1:30 p.m., Barsanti said his assistants were preparing court papers to ask a judge to sign off on the extension, which could be argued at a hearing later this afternoon in Kane County's old courthouse in Geneva.

The county has 223 polling sites. At more than 40 locations, workers were unable to power up electronic voting machines by 6 a.m., creating more than hour-long delays, Cunningham said.
All of the problems were resolved by 1 p.m., he said.

“I thought I had a backup for everything, but I didn't,” Cunningham said.

The snarls prompted dozens of calls to election officials and the state's attorney's office, which established a hotline to report voting concerns.

Some Hispanic voters were unable to cast a ballot, due to polling sites that opened late or had malfunctioning voting machines, according to the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refuge Rights.

In Elgin and Carpentersville, lines were reported at polling sites, where few or none of the voting machines worked, said Kristin Kumpf, a spokeswoman for the organization.

The delays caused frustration for voters in the predominantly Hispanic precincts, where they were forced to choose between voting or being late for work, she said.

“The fact that this is disenfranchising a community that was already disenfranchised to begin with is somewhat of a concern,” Kumpf said.

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