Image courtesy 10.14.26 Barrington 220 School District Facebook post
A follow-up to “A Polling Place for Some”
The law requires certain actions before any early voting site can operate, including official lists that are supposed to show the public where and when it can vote. Barrington High School isn’t on any of them.
What the law requires
Illinois’ early voting statute, 10 ILCS 5/19A-25, is short and clear. The election authority, here the Cook County Clerk, must:
- publish, in a newspaper of general circulation, during the week before early voting and at least once a week during it, a schedule listing every permanent and temporary early voting location and the dates and hours of each (subsection (a));
- post that schedule at every early voting location, starting no later than 10 days before early voting begins (subsection (b));
- make free copies of the schedule available to the public (subsection (c));
- put the schedule on its website (subsection (d)); and
- give the State Board of Elections a list of all early voting sites and their hours at least 10 days before early voting begins (subsection (f)).
Subsection (e) covers sites added after the schedule is published:
“Additional temporary locations may be established after the schedule is published, provided that the location is open to all eligible voters. The location, dates, and hours shall be reported to the State Board of Elections and posted on the election authority’s website.”
Open to all eligible voters, reported to the State Board, and posted on the Clerk’s website. From what we’ve been able to determine, Barrington High’s site fails each of these on the public record.
Not on the Clerk’s website
The Cook County Clerk’s Early Voting Locations page on October 15, 2026, the day after the District announced the BHS voting site, says limited early voting for the November 3 election began October 7 at six Vote Centers, and that expanded early voting begins October 19 at 56 suburban locations. The page lists courthouses, village halls, libraries, community centers, and a few college and school campuses, all open to the public. It does not list Barrington High School, and it does not mention a high school early voting day. https://www.cookcountyclerkil.gov/elections/ways-to-vote/early-voting/early-voting-locations
The District posted on October 14 that BHS hosted the site “today.” On that date, according to the Clerk’s own page, early voting in suburban Cook County was limited to six sites: the Clerk’s downtown office and the courthouses in Rolling Meadows, Skokie, Maywood, Bridgeview, and Markham. The nearest public site for a Barrington voter was the Rolling Meadows courthouse. The site at BHS appears nowhere on the public schedule.
Not on the State Board of Elections’ list
Similarly, Barrington High School is not on the State Board of Elections’ list of 2026 General Election early voting locations for Cook County, which is built from what election authorities report under subsections (e) and (f). The only Barrington-area entry is Barrington Hills Village Hall, 112 Algonquin Road, which doesn’t open until October 19. https://www.elections.il.gov/votingandregistrationsystems/earlyvotinglocationssearch.aspx
Not open to all eligible voters
By the District’s own description, the site was for “eligible BHS students and staff who are Cook County voters.” A Cook County retiree living down the street from the school, a veteran, a parent: none of them were invited, and none of them could have known to come, because the BHS site wasn’t on any schedule. That is the opposite of “open to all eligible voters.”
The Clerk’s own training materials make the same point. The 2026 High School Early Voting Handbook, which the Clerk’s Office prepared for the student election judges, opens by stating the general rule: “A suburban Cook County registered voter can vote early at any of the suburban Cook County Early Voting sites.” Nothing in the Handbook says a high school site may be limited to the school’s own students and staff.
And, the Handbook is no rulebook for this fall’s General Election sites. Its cover reads “2026 Gubernatorial Primary Election,” and its calendar lists a “Primary High School Early Voting Day” of February 26, 2026, but no high school voting day for the November 3 General Election. As far as the public record shows, the high school sites that operated this October were run without any published procedures specific to them. https://www.cookcountyclerkil.gov/sites/default/files/pdfs/hs-ev-handbook-2026.pdf
Image courtesy 10.14.26 Barrington 220 School District Facebook post
What about pollwatchers?
In fairness, the Handbook doesn’t bar pollwatchers. However, the Handbook never mentions a fall high school voting day. The Handbook advises judges that credentialed pollwatchers, media and exit pollsters may enter the site for the Primary Election. And, in fact, the media seems to have been made aware of the polling as there is coverage from CBS on Cook County “transform(ing) 27 suburban high schools into early voting sites for a ‘Teen Takeover for Democracy’ event … transform(ing) high schools into early voting sites to help eligible students vote.” https://www.cbsnews.com/chicago/news/cook-county-high-schools-early-voting-students/
But a right to observe means little if no one (except CBS) knows where or when to show up. A pollwatcher’s credential has to name the specific early voting site. If a site isn’t on the Clerk’s schedule, isn’t on the State Board’s list, and is announced by the school district only on the day it happens, no party, candidate, or civic group can realistically get a credential for it and get through the door of a secured school building. The Handbook says nothing about how an outside pollwatcher is supposed to get into a high school during the school day.
Questions the Clerk should answer
We’re not mind readers, and there may be an explanation. If so, the Clerk’s Office should give it publicly:
- Under what legal authority did the BHS site operate, and was it treated as an early voting location under Article 19A?
- If it was a temporary location, why isn’t it on the Clerk’s website or the State Board’s list, as subsection (e) requires?
- Was it ever included in the published newspaper schedule or posted at the site, as subsections (a) and (b) require?
- Was it open to any eligible Cook County voter who showed up? If not, how is that consistent with “open to all eligible voters”?
- Which other high schools hosted sites this fall, on what dates, and how many ballots were cast at each?
- What is the Chicago Bears’ role in the “Defenders of DA’mocracy” program, and will the Clerk release the agreement?
These aren’t partisan questions. The notice rules in 19A-25 protect every voter and every campaign equally. They exist so that no one, whether the Clerk, a school district, or anyone else, can set up a polling place that only the privileged few know about.
Perhaps a Freedom of Information Act request to District 220 and the Cook County Clerk’s Office for the published early voting schedules and newspaper notices, the reports to the State Board of Elections, the list of high school sites and dates for this election, and any agreement with the Chicago Bears would provide some insight.
Related: “A Polling Place for Some: Barrington High School’s Invitation-Only Early Voting”
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