Lake Co. Installing Drop Boxes For Nov. Election

LAKE COUNTY, IL — The Lake County Clerk’s Office is joining a growing number of counties across the Chicago area and country working to get drop boxes in place ahead of the November election. The change comes as there has been an increased concern over how the U.S. Postal Service will handle expected record numbers of Americans voting by mail in November due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Operational changes within the USPS have reportedly led to widespread mail delays, elimination of overtime for postal workers, carriers being instructed to leave mail behind and the decommissioning of mail sorting machines. This, coupled with the fact that the Lake County Clerk's Office is expecting more than three times the number of mail-in votes this year led to the push for drop boxes, Lake County Chief Deputy County Clerk Todd Govani told Patch.

“Once legislation passed to expand vote by mail, election authorities were given the option to use the drop boxes and we decided that voters may feel more comfortable dropping their ballots off instead of risking their ballots not being delivered due to postal issues,” Govani said.

The Lake County Clerk’s Office is currently working to determine locations for drop boxes throughout the county, Govani said. Some of the boxes will be unattended but monitored by video surveillance that is recorded. Those drop boxes will be available 24 hours per day and permanently anchored in place once vote-by-mail gets underway on Sept. 24.

Additional boxes will be available during early voting, which will run from Oct. 19 through Nov. 2. There will be between 16 and 17 early voting sites, which will be staffed by election judges, throughout the county but the clerk’s office is still working to determine the location of these sites, Govani said.

Once drop box and early voting locations are determined the information will be posted on the clerk’s office website and mailed to anyone who requests a ballot by mail, according to the clerk’s office.

To find out more about how to vote by mail, visit here.

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