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Early voting problems arise in Cook County suburbs

Problems were reported in the Northwest suburbs of Cook County on the first day of early voting Monday - including one case of a Republican candidate being unable to vote for himself or other members of his party on a touch screen.

The other issue, which occurred at Arlington Heights village hall and a few other locations, involved the wrong signatures popping up for voters who came in to cast ballots.

Both issues were addressed as soon as election judges were made aware of them, and they did not interfere with voters being able to cast ballots in the way they chose Monday, said Jim Scalzitti, deputy communications director for the Cook County clerk's office.

Representatives of the Cook County state's attorney's office said they received no reports or requests to look into polling place irregularities.

Republican Jim Moynihan, who's challenging Democratic incumbent state Rep. Michelle Mussman in the 56th District House race, said his initial attempts to vote for himself Monday at the Schaumburg Township District Library ended up registering votes for his opponent.

And when he tried to vote for fellow Republican Larry Kaifesh in the 8th Congressional District race, his screen registered a vote for Democratic incumbent U.S. Rep. Tammy Duckworth.

When he pointed it out to a judge, it was determined that the machine hadn't been calibrated correctly, he said. He ultimately was able to vote for the candidates he chose by pressing the very bottom right hand corner of the screen. Pressing the center of each button resulted in the opposite candidate's name registering.

Scalzitti said the machine in question was removed from service to be recalibrated immediately and that there were no other reports of voters having similar problems.

The other problem of the day affected more people in the northwest corner of the county, Scalzitti said.

Tony Novak, who's lived in his Arlington Heights condominium for 31 years, said another name he's never heard of came up as the registered voter at his address when he went to the polls at Arlington Heights village hall.

Scalzitti said there apparently were misnamed signature files that would cause the wrong signature to come up for a voter at several Northwest suburban polling places.

The problem was addressed by replacing the misnamed signature files with the correct files, Scalzitti said. There did not appear to be a problem with either the voting hardware or the software, just the naming of the files themselves, he said.

Affected voters had to sign an extra ballot label to be able to cast their votes, Scalzitti said. The problem was believed to be taken care of in a way that would prevent voters on Tuesday from being affected, he said.

Novak agreed that the discrepancy was fixed immediately and it did not compromise his ability to vote.

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