Early Voting Sites Approved by County Board!

The  following is adapted  from the Tom Kachich's column in the News Gazette. The full article is here. (Scroll down past the sunflowers.)

The Champaign County Board has approved, 15-3, County Clerk Aaron Ammons’ list of early voting sites for the Nov. 3 election.

County Board member Jim Goss was among those who voted against the list, noting that the University YMCA site is close to the Illini Union, also an early voting site. Further, it would cost the county $14,000 — a thousand dollars a day for 14 days — to run the YMCA location, he said.

Early voting will begin Sept. 24 at the Brookens Center, 1776 E. Washington St., Urbana.
The following locations will open October 19 for early voting:

• Illini Union, 1401 W. Green St., Urbana
• Activities and Recreation Center, University of Illinois, 201 E. Peabody Drive, Champaign
• University YMCA,
• 1001 S. Wright St., Champaign
• Parkland College Student Union, 2400 W. Bradley Ave., Champaign
• Meadowbrook Community Church, 1902 S. Duncan Road, Champaign
• Church of the Living God, 312 E. Bradley Ave., Champaign
• Leonhard Recreation Center, 2307 Sangamon Drive, Champaign
• Elks Pavilion, Lake of the Woods Park, Mahomet ➜ Tolono Public Library,
• 111 E. Main St., Tolono
• Prince of Peace Lutheran Church, 802 E. Douglas St., St. Joseph
• First United Methodist Church — The Gathering Place, 200 S. Century Blvd., Rantoul 

Also, if you request a ballot by mail, it can be dropped off in what Ammons called a secure drop box — most of which will have security cameras on them — beginning Sept. 24 at the following sites:

• Brookens Center
• Urbana Free Library
• UI Quad
• Champaign Public Library
• Douglass Branch Library
• Sholem Aquatic Center
• Champaign-Urbana Public Health District office 

Ammons also told the county board that portable drop boxes would be staffed on Saturdays beginning in early October at sites in Rantoul, Tolono, Mahomet and St. Joseph.
— TOM KACICH