For suburban couple, love at first ballot punch

It was love at first ballot punch for Carl Lashley and Eve Parojcic.

Cupid struck as the Arlington Heights man and Mount Prospect woman were serving as election judges at Precinct 36 in Des Plaines, during the 2008 presidential election.

Lashley, an account representative for Associated Creditors Exchange Inc. in Chicago, and Parojcic, a librarian at the Deerfield and Mount Prospect libraries, said they exchanged glances and small talk throughout their 14-hour shifts that November day.

The fact that Lashley is a Republican and Parojcic a Democrat didn’t seem to complicate matters.

“At the end of the day we talked about spending some more time together,” Lashley said shyly from the Asbury Court retirement community polling site Tuesday, the same spot where they met, reaching for his fiance’s hand.

A few days later, she sent him a note, and he took her out to dinner at Wildfire Restaurant in Schaumburg.

The pair, engaged last year, recently settled upon a fall wedding date. As they set about planning for the big day, Parojcic said it occurred to them to ask Cook County Clerk David Orr to serve as the officiant.

Orr hopes to be able to perform the ceremony, spokesman Courtney Greve said.

It was by random “luck of the draw” that the pair ended up Tuesday back at the spot where they first met, Parojcic said.

They plan to hold the wedding reception at Salt Creek golf club in Wood Dale and honeymoon in South Carolina.

“Those two are soo cute!” poll worker Dale Draznin gushed.