Lines were long at Truman College, where some voters had trouble finding their correct precinct. (Credit: Susanna Song/CBS 2)
Updated 11/06/12 – 5:53 p.m.
CHICAGO (CBS) – A few election judges in Chicago had to be removed from their polling places today.
Two judges were removed for showing up drunk, while another was removed for being disruptive.
Meantime, as CBS 2’s Pam Zekman reports the city also had some problems with election judges who had to be instructed to stop disenfranchising voters, by telling them their names were not on precinct polling place lists, when in fact they were.
“We saw some judges looked like they weren’t cooperating with the process, but trying to interfere with the process. We’ll identify those, and that will be the last time they work for us,” Chicago Board of Elections Chairman Langdon Neal said.
Neal said those incidents were under investigation, and the problem appeared to be more widespread than originally thought.
At one precinct in the city, there were complaints a judge was demanding voters show a photo ID, which is illegal in Illinois.
Election officials were dealing with a variety of other problems.
The Chicago Board Of Elections website was overwhelmed with visitors trying to find out where to vote. So voters who have been trying to use that site to find their polling place have been redirected to the Illinois State Board of Elections’ website to look up their polling place.
At one polling location on the North Side at Truman College, voters were confused on where to go.
At other locations, ballots wouldn’t fit into machines, but those problems were quickly fixed.
