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News
Voters line-up to cast ballots early : News : Oswego Ledger-Sentinel : Hometown Newspaper for Oswego and Montgomery, IllinoisVoters line-up to cast ballots early
| Oswego Village Hall proving a popular early voting site
| by Matt Schury
| 10/25/2012
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Almost 6,000 Kendall County residents are on track to cast ballots before Election Day Nov. 6 if the current pace of early voting keeps up.
According to Kendall County Clerk Debbie Gillette, 735 voters went to early voting sites at Oswego Village Hall and the County Office Building in Yorkville a day and a half after early voting began this past Monday morning.
Of the two sites, Gillette says the majority, 445 people, early voted in Oswego.
In the 2008 presidential election, the first year early voting was offered, about 4,500 people voted early with 2,400 people casting ballots in Oswego.
Those voting totals do not include the portion the City of Aurora within Kendall County. The Aurora Election Commission, which oversees the election there, has about 3,050 voters in their jurisdiction in Kendall County. The commission could not supply early voting number as of press time.
The Aurora Election Commission offers two sites to vote early-their office in Aurora and the Aurora Public Library located at 555 S. Eola Rd.
Gillette says she is not surprised by the high turnout and has seen lines for early voting in Yorkville.
"Yeah, it's quite busy," she said. "We have gotten a lot of phone calls, a lot of people are wanting to early vote," Gillette said, adding, "I'm not surprised, they've let us know by calling and asking-what time and where at."
Early voting runs through Saturday, Nov. 3 at the Kendall County Office Building, at 111 W. Fox Street in Yorkville and through Nov. 1 at Oswego Village Hall, 100 Parkers Mill in Oswego.
Gillette says she believes the two-week period of early voting is long enough.
"There's plenty of ways to vote nowadays with the absentee and early voting time period, plus you can still vote on Election Day," she said.
Through Tuesday morning, Gillette's office has sent out 900 absentee ballots via mail, of which 394 have been returned so far.
Eighty-six people have so far chosen grace period voting in the clerk's office. Grace period voting is available to voters who missed the deadline to register to vote. Those residents can go the clerk's office where they can register to vote and must immediately cast their ballot In 2008, 204 residents used the option to vote.
As far as expanding early voting sites to other locations in the county, Gillette says she would favor it for larger presidential elections where voter turnout is high.
"But now you come to the consolidated elections and people will be sitting there with nothing to do," she said. "I think it depends on the type of election."
Gillette added that she wants to wait and see what the State of Illinois may require.
"Election laws are changing all the time. We have early voting this year up to the Saturday before the election," Gillette said. "I know there's talk, maybe they'll let us go to voting centers where we can maybe use a high school gym and vote five or 10 precincts at one time."
She said people choose early voting because the weather might not be accommodating on Election Day or they may not feel good enough to make it to the polls. Early voting allows voters to work voting into their schedule.
"It's more flexible I think," she said.
On the other hand voters may want to wait to get as much information about a candidate before they make a decision. Additionally an "October Surprise" late in the election cycle may change voters' minds.
"You might want to wait to hear all about your candidate but if you've already decided it, then that's a good thing but if you're still unsure then I would suggest finding more out about your candidate," Gillette said.
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