CHICAGO (AP) – Illinois’ experiment with allowing people to register and vote on Election Day ran into bottlenecks in Chicago, leading to lines of hundreds, including at one polling site where the last voter didn’t cast a ballot until after 3 a.m. and others just gave up.
Crowds kept entertained with cracking jokes, dancing, placing pizza orders and live-tweeting their travails. One voter pulled out a ukulele and played for hours to entertain the crowd.
But despite a jovial atmosphere, some wondered how a process that’s been done in other states for decades could have gone so badly.
“For so many people to have had to leave yesterday because they didn’t have the time to wait eight or nine hours in line, it really broke my heart,” said Lauren Scott, a 26-year-old software engineer. “I felt like we were failing as a democratic system.”
State lawmakers passed legislation in the spring to allow same-day registration as a trial that could be made permanent if things went smoothly. Last-minute registrations are allowed in Washington, D.C., and 10 states.