PEORIA, Ill. – If you’re a voter in Peoria County, you can cast it anywhere in the county on Election Day.
It’s part of the county’s “Vote Anywhere” initiative. Voters can go to one of 55 polling locations in the county on Election Day that is most convenient for them, and vote there, instead of having to vote at their assigned polling place.
“Let’s say you live in Chillicothe but you work at Keystone in Bartonville. Keystone is actually one of our polling places, you could vote where you work,” said Peoria County Election Commission Executive Director Elizabeth Gannon.
Gannon says two things made the initiative possible. She says previously, there was only one location in Peoria County where any voter could show up and cast their ballot, which was the election office.
Gannon says the law that allowed for it on a county-level kept expiring. She says it was recently renewed to last for around 10 years, which gave her office the confidence to expand it to all polling locations.
The other thing making it possible was the recent acquisition of an on-demand ballot printing system at all polling locations.
“When a voter comes in and they state their name and address, we verify their signature, and once they are checked in, not only does their label print for their application to vote, but their ballot prints simultaneously as well,” Gannon said. “And that ballot is specific to the voter. It has the races, contests that are specific to their address.”
Gannon says the verification process is the same at every polling location, and security measures are in place to ensure a person does not vote more than once on Election Day.
She says the “Vote Anywhere” initiative aims to save people time and make voting more convenient for them.
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