NBC5 Investigates found that state law requires any school to serve as a polling place — open to the general public — when asked to do so by county officials. In this era of school shootings, why can’t schools choose to opt out? Patrick Fazio has more.
If you want to visit Lakeview Junior High School in west-suburban Downers Grove, you’ll be stopped at a locked front door where you’ll have to announce who you are and why you’re there.
Then you’ll get buzzed in, show your ID and be told to wear a badge that says you’re an approved visitor.
Except sometimes you don’t.
On certain days, Lakeview and hundreds of other local schools are required by law to open their doors to anyone and everyone, no questions asked – even if kids are in class in the same building.
It happened this past Apr. 4, when more than a thousand schools across the state served as polling locations for the statewide election. It also happened in Chicago back on Feb. 28, when more than two hundred Chicago schools served as voting locations for the mayoral primary.
Illinois state election law says that a school “must” make its facilities available as an election location if told to do so by county election officials. The intention is to make sure that people have sufficient places to go to cast their votes.
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However, the law was written before this current era school shootings, and – although there are no known instances of someone committing violence after being allowed into an Illinois school to vote – the mere prospect is a new concern for some parents and administrators, who want to see a simple change in state law: allowing a school to opt out of being a polling place.
NBC 5 Investigates looked at the most current list of Chicago-area polling places from the Illinois State Board of Elections, to see just how often it is that the general public is voting at places where parents trust their children to be safe.
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We checked every one of the Chicago area’s 2,749 polling locations – some of which accommodate voters for multiple precincts. We found that many local polls are located at places customarily open to the public, like libraries, town halls, police and fire stations and community centers.
But we also found that more than two-thirds of the Chicago-area’s polling locations are in places frequented by children – places that are usually not open to just anyone. For example, NBC 5 Investigates found that more than one of every three polling places in the Chicago area is inside a school – public, private, parochial -- even pre-schools.
In all, we found a total of 954 state polling places inside local schools statewide, with the Chicago area accounting for more than 90% of all schools used as polling places.
It does appear that some schools take extra precautions when they’re hosting elections, to make sure that the general public can’t get access to the rest of the school and its school children.
But the expense of any additional security is be borne by the school itself.
The law does “suggest” that schools use election days as “institute days” for teachers, so that students are not in attendance – that that’s only a suggestion, and it doesn’t always happen. If a school district has already mapped out its calendar for the year, a new “off” day can be disruptive.
We found that 398 schools in the city of Chicago are listed as polling locations. When the city held its mayor election on Apr. 4, Chicago Public School children were on spring break. But back in February, when the city held the mayoral primary, those schools were in session.
There are other poll locations which may cause some new alarm as well, in these days of mass shootings. NBC 5 Investigates found another 369 polling places located at local parks and rec centers, as well as 11 Chicago-area youth centers like Boys and Girls Clubs, YMCA's, and teen centers.
Illinois election law makes no recommendations for limiting visitors – meaning voters – from these types of buildings.
Neither does the law limit voters from houses of worship. We found 558 local polling locations in the Chicago area, located mainly in churches, but also in some local synagogues and Islamic centers.
