A Slow Day at the Polls in Glen Ellyn

It was a slow day at the polls for some of Glen Ellyn's election judges today. 

For the first hour and a half after opening, the Civic Center only saw about 17 residents come in to vote, judges said earlier today.

"I think this is particularly slow," said Linda Gilbert, president of Citizens for Glen Ellyn Preservation and an election judge at the Civic Center today. "The most we had in here at one time today was four people in line and three in the voting booths."

Throughout the day, judges and other aides seemed to outnumber voters at any given time, but the Civic Center staff said they expected a larger turnout after residents started to get out of work.

Jim Vitacco, an election judge at the B.R. Ryall YMCA, echoed the sentiment.

"At times it's been slow, but then it seems like everyone is deciding to come at the same time," he said.

Jim Rueter, an election technition at the YMCA said the turnout had been more than he'd expected, though still on the low end as well.

"Well, I'm actually a bit surprised. We're approaching about 200 [voters] here now," Rueter said about 4:30 p.m. today. "I thought it would be even a bit slower."

Fiscal Responsibility an Issue for Voters

Residents who did show up to vote today, largely said they came out from a sense of civic duty. Several residents said that voting on an election day was something they had been doing for so long, they just figured they'd show up again, even if they weren't as knowledgable about the candidates as they wanted to be. 

The big issues on resident's minds were mostly related to the school board races and the park district, with key issues being fiscal responsibility on both boards and the issue of lights at Memorial Field.

"I always vote... It's my job," said resident Colby Jordan. "There's a lot going on at the park district that I'm concerned about."

Jordan said that the park district going over budget with expenses related to the funding of the Ackerman Sports Center drove him to the polls to put some new leadership on the board, and said fiscal responsibility was a major issue for him.

Resident Patti Page said that she was mainly voting for the continued development of the Platform Tennis program at Maryknoll Park, and to put people on the board that would continue that development.

"I want to keep it moving ahead and maybe build it up a little more," Page said, adding she would like to see more development overall at Maryknoll with a warming shelter for platform tennis players and new opportunities for recreation."