Early Voting Begins For Detainees In Cook County Jail
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Early voting for the general election began Saturday for hundreds of inmates at the Cook County Jail. It is the first time inmates in the jail will get a chance to vote early in a general election.
A new law went into effect last summer, giving 20,000 pretrial detainees in the state an opportunity to vote. This law also requires jails in the state to distribute absentee ballots and setup voting machines if the county has more than 3 million residents. Cook County meets that requirement.
In March officials set up a polling place in the jail for the primary, becoming one of the first in the state to do so.
The jail also worked with community groups on getting information out to inmates about candidates who were running and even registered inmates.
