Early voting in the DuPage County primary election will be delayed nearly two weeks due to pending petition objections in a judicial race in the county, in one at the state level, and to presidential candidates. Early voting was to begin Thursday at the offices of the DuPage County Election Commission, with early-voting satellite offices planned to open Feb. 29. Due to the challenges, voters will not be able to cast early ballots at the commission’s office in Wheaton until Feb. 17. By that date, the commission anticipates the ballot challenges will have been determined, said Robert Saar, executive director of the county election commission. The postponed early voting period also will mean a delay in ballots being mailed out, he said. However, at this point it does not appear there will be any delay in the start of early voting at the satellite sites, he said.
“It is not unusual during a presidential year to get a delay from the state … due to the presidential candidates and presidential delegates,” Saar said. “But we always got a lot of foot traffic here in our office for early voters.” There is now a shorter time frame between when candidates file their petitions and early voting begins, Saar said.
Naperville attorney Tom Laz, a Republican, and West Chicago attorney Jennifer Shilakis Wiesner, a Democrat, both appealed a decision of the election commission to invalidate enough of their petitions to rule them ineligible to run for the 18th Judicial Circuit. There is one other candidate for the seat, Judge Liam C. Brennan, a Wheaton Republican appointed to the seat by the Illinois Supreme Court in 2014. His current term expires in December.
Full Article: Early primary voting delayed by candidate ballot challenges – Naperville Sun.