It was the afternoon of Friday, November 3, time for voting to begin at Cook County Jail, but the voting machines, election judges, and ballots were late. From now through Sunday, voting machines would be set up in various locations around the jail’s 11 divisions–a law library, a dining hall, and here, in the nondenominational Mother York Chapel inside the new maximum security facility at 3015 S. California. This building houses about 1,500 prisoners, held on serious charges like rape, criminal assault, and murder. Until they’re convicted of a felony, detainees have the right to cast absentee ballots. (In Illinois convicts can vote after their sentence is served, but some states take away the right for good.)
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Finally, a little before 4:30, five election judges arrived, pulling a large cart containing voting machines and stands. As the judges set up the booths on the chapel’s stage, the first few voters, dressed in tan uniforms that in another setting might be taken for doctors’ scrubs, were led into the chapel. They filed onto the stage, were given pins to punch their ballots, and took their places behind the stands. Then one of the judges gave instructions, announcement style, on how to vote.
After almost 20 minutes, the election judges began to chafe slightly, checking their watches. “Maybe they’re having trouble reading,” one judge worried. But before long the first voter stepped away from his stand. On his way back to his seat, Ryan B. told me, “I’m a very strong supporter of Bush. One important reason is his abortion issue. I studied a lot on that. I was affected by abortion in my family.”
Voting privileges were first extended at the jail in the late 1960s, when it was a much smaller facility. In the early 1970s voting here yielded as few as 150 votes per election.
Art accompanying story in printed newspaper (not available in this archive): photos/Lloyd DeGrane.
