Like everybody else, as the election results rolled in last night, we wanted to know who won.
But that's not all. We didn't just want to hear the candidates' side of the election story, or the Kane County Board of Elections' side of the story -- we also wanted to hear yours. And while we heard from the county there were few complaints about the election process, mostly about signage, what we heard from you was there were some ridiculously long lines at area polling places and a few other "interesting anomalies."
Reporter Katie Anderson has that story in today's paper ("Kane voter turnout spors long waits at Elgin-area polls").
Here are a few more from our readers, in their own words...
Danise Habun
Danise Habun of Elgin knows she is the only Danise Habun in Kane County, but yet when she tried to vote at about 10:15 a.m., she was told that she had already voted by absentee ballot."I always vote on election day," Habun said.
At the polling location, Elgin Community Church, the judges said the computer they had showed she had voted, but a call to the Kane County Clerks office said she hadn't. Eventually, a technician was able to override the info in the computer and allow her to cast her vote anyway.
The judges said other people had had problems voting, too, Habun said, but she didn't get into what the problems were.
Once she was done, Habun said, she filed a complaint at Kane County. She then posted her story on Facebook.
And, she said, "I had some interesting responses about the anomalies that have occurred in our area with voting today."
-- Janelle Walker, Freelance Writer
More reader reports, ways to share your experiences, after the jump.
Jennifer Martin
Jennifer Martin of Gilberts said when she saw how long the line was when she got to her polling location, she decided to start her stopwatch. She clicked it off an hour and 20 minutes after she first got in line."It took forever. You could see tons of people, and I thought, 'How long is this going to take?'" Martin said.
She got into that line at 6:30 p.m. and walked out at just before 8 p.m.
It wasn't that there were not enough voting booths, but that there was just one laptop computer available to check people in and give them their authorization code for the Kane County voting system, according to Martin.
"There was a huge line to get checked in," she said.
One of the election judges told her there had been about 2,000 people through the location before the after-work rush, but had no idea how many people had come through after that, Martin added.
-- Katie Anderson, Staff Reporter
Tara Leitner
I arrived at the polls (the Fraternal Order of the Eagles in Gilberts) shortly after 6 p.m. -- late, I realize, but I was expecting a lot of people. I also expected the election judges to have a much better grasp on what was happening.When I checked in, I was not directed where to go next, which was needed since there were probably about 300 people at the poll when I got there. After asking another group of people working at the location, I was directed to another line. A voter mentioned repeatedly that we weren't actually at the end of the line. After asking three more judges, a group of about 20 of us, who were not in the right place, were moved to another spot.
Imagine a corn maze -- that's basically the way they had the line, if you can call it that, set up, snaking all over the building. Meanwhile, more than half of the voting booths were constantly empty.
I understand waiting in lines, especially after many people end their work day. But this was the most disorganized polling place I've ever been to. Not sure where the breakdown occurred, but there definitely was one. It took about an hour and a half to move through the line.
-- Tara Leitner, former Courier editor
We STILL want to hear your Election Day stories! Tell us about your voting experience, or give us your reaction to last night's results, still trickling in in some races.
Leave your comment here or on The Courier-News Facebook page, e-mail Between the Bylines editor Emily McFarlan at emcfarlan@stmedianetwork.com or join the conversation on Twitter: Use the hashtag #CNVote2010 in your tweets, or view what other people are saying, using that hashtag. And follow and interact with us at @couriernews today as the last of those races are decided.
-- Emily McFarlan, Readers' Reporter
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