CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) — On National Voter Registration Day, election crews with the Cook County Clerk’s Office were in Daley Plaza sign to help folks register to vote for the upcoming general election.
Interim Cook County Clerk Cedric Giles said voter turnout looks good ahead of the general election and told WBBM more than 20,000 people have registered to vote since August.
Max Bever, with the Chicago Board of Elections, said voters are fired up — especially young people.
“Since June 1, we’ve had over 37,000 new voter registrations in the city of Chicago, and the majority of those are young voters under 34,” he said.
One of those young voters was 18-year-old DePaul student Sheila Holtschneider.
“It feels really amazing because I’ve never done this before,” she said. “It was a new process for me, but it was very straightforward online, and I’m very excited to have my voice heard.”
At Tuesday’s event, Giles said the voting process will be safe and secure.
“We have a cyber security expert in our office that’s office day to day with the Department of Homeland Security on a federal level, as well as with the state of Illinois’ Board of Elections to ensure that our equipment is validated and certified,” he said.
Cook County Deputy Clerk of Elections Edmund Michalowski said all levels of government are working together.
“We have security measures that we’ve worked out with all of the different law enforcement groups, and they’ve asked us to, obviously, not divulge the actual plan for what we’re using to make sure that people are safe,”
Officials said they’re working hard to ensure a safe election day on Nov. 5.
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