Vernon Hills teen drives three hours to vote

Wylee Soskin may have driven farther than any other Lake County voter to get to a polling place Tuesday: about 170 miles.

Soskin, 19, a sophomore at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, erroneously thought she was registered to vote near campus. But when she showed up at her presumptive polling place about 1 p.m. Tuesday, election workers said she wasn't on the voter rolls.

"I was really upset," said Soskin, a 2007 graduate of Chicagoland Jewish High School in Deerfield who was eligible to vote for the first time Tuesday. "I was kind of freaking out."

She called her mom, Marcy, in Vernon Hills, for guidance.

Marcy Soskin was able to confirm her daughter was, in fact, registered to vote in Vernon Hills - so the teen got in her Nissan Sentra and headed north, racing the clock to get home before the polls closed at 7 p.m.

Not voting wasn't an option.

"I absolutely wanted to vote," Wylee said. "I think it's important for everyone to vote, especially college kids. It adds up, all the young people who don't vote. One vote counts."

She reached Vernon Hills in plenty of time, and cast her ballot at Christ Lutheran Church about 6 p.m.

Barack Obama got her vote for president, Dick Durbin was her choice for senator and Dan Seals was her man in the 10th Congressional District race.

"It feels so great," Wylee Soskin said. "I'm so proud that I was able to participate in this election. I was really excited to be a part of it."

Her mother was proud, too.

"This vote, I think, will affect her life in the long term even more than it will affect mine," said the elder Soskin, who voted for Walter Mondale in her first presidential ballot in 1984. "She paid more attention to this election than I did, I admit it."

Wylee Soskin wasn't sticking around in Vernon Hills to follow in the post-election news. After having dinner with her mom, she headed back to school Tuesday night.

"I have an 11 a.m. English class to get to," she explained.