Voters Given Wrong Ballots At Mt. Greenwood Polling Place

CHICAGO - A Mount Greenwood woman who went to her polling place to vote just after the polls opened Tuesday morning says some voters were given the wrong ballot and that one of the election judges suggested that votes could be "transferred" to the correct ballots and that she could cast a vote in place of her husband if he could not make it back later in the day to vote for the correct races.

Bridget O'Donnell is a longtime neighborhood resident, but Tuesday morning was the first time she went to vote at the Ward 19, Precinct 12 polling place at Murphy's Windows & Sunrooms, 10359 S. Pulaski Road on Election Day. She and her husband, a Chicago firefighter, showed up just as the polls were opening at 6 a.m. so her husband could begin a 24-hour shift at the fire station shortly after.

"If I hadn't witnessed it, I wouldn't believe it," O'Donnell said of what she experienced this morning.

O'Donnell said she was told by her husband, who was ahead of her in line just minutes after voting started, that the wrong ballots had been given to voters at that location.

"The ballots were from a different ward," O'Donnell said. "And some people had already voted and left, so I was wondering and asked if their votes didn't count."

That's when O'Donnell said the election judge supposedly said "if they don't come back and vote again, we could transfer the votes."

When one man asked about the possibility of him coming back and being denied because the system would show that he already voted, O'Donnell said the election judge said something to the effect of "don't worry about it."

"So what does that mean?," O'Donnell asked. "That anyone could come there all day and vote without an ID?"

O'Donnell says that at least 10 people voted while she was there, before the correct paper ballots arrived, and that the one electronic voting machine there was not up and running by the time it opened.

When O'Donnell mentioned that her husband had to leave for work and would not be able to come back and vote once the correct ballots arrived, the election judge allegedly told her that "if he can't leave the firehouse, you could come back and vote for him... Just don't tell anyone."

O'Donnell says she is "extremely outraged and concerned" about the judge's comments.

"To blatantly tell someone to vote for someone else and offer to transfer votes is ridiculous," she said.

The Chicago Board of Elections was contacted, but O'Donnell said she had not heard an update from them as of 10 a.m.

The election judge in question, a woman whose photograph appeared on the 19th Ward News neighborhood Facebook page shortly after the incident, was still at the polling place in a judge's seat at 8:30 a.m., but not in the same spot one hour later at 9:30 a.m.

Notice a problem? Patch is partnering with ProPublica's Electionland project to report on problems voters encounter at the polls on Nov. 6 and we want to know if you see any shenanigans. Here's how you can report what you see to Electionland:

• SMS: Send the word VOTE, VOTA (for Spanish) or 投票 (for Chinese) to 81380 (standard text message rates apply).
• WhatsApp: Send the word VOTE, VOTA (for Spanish) or 投票 (for Chinese) to 1-850-909-8683.
• Facebook Messenger: Go to m.me/electionland.
• Submit a tip through this form.

Photo: Incorrect ballots were given to some voters at this polling place near 104th and Pulaski in Mount Greenwood / Photo by Tim Moran, Patch