Vanishing voting sites: Some states see number of polling places decline

CHICAGO (WLS) -- With less than a week until voters head to the polls, some may find their polling places are no longer there.

More than one in five polling places have closed over the last decade, according to an ABC 7 I-Team and ABC Owned Stations analysis of data from the Election Administration and Voting Survey, the Center for New Data and the Center for Public Integrity.

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Between 2012 and 2022, the United States lost 27,000 polling places, with the number of Election Day polling sites falling from an estimated 116,000 in 2012 to fewer than 89,000 in 2022.

Cook County is one of a few jurisdictions in the U.S. where the number of polling places more than doubled in that same 10-year time period. There were 1,082 Election Day polling places in 2012, increasing to 2,655 in 2022.

In Chicago, many voters started casting their ballots early this month, possibly made easier because there are so many polling locations citywide. However, that upward trajectory is not seen everywhere.

In Illinois, Kendall and Lake counties are among the areas that saw the number of polling places drop in that 10-year time period.

Lake County Clerk Anthony Vega said it has to do with voter habits.

"The biggest change that has impacted this, the number of sites, really has been in voter behavior," Vega told the I-Team. "With the increased popularity of vote-by-mail, and the increased popularity of in-person early voting... Now we're seeing most voters -- more than 50% of voters -- voting before election day. And that's true even more so now, especially in the primary of 2024."

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Across the state border, in Lake County, Indiana, the I-Team found nearly 40% of its polling places closed in a 10-year period. There were 323 Election Day polling places in 2012, decreasing to 196 in 2022.

Lake County, Indiana election officials did not respond to the I-Team's questions about the decline in polling site locations.

Voter rights groups said those cuts are disenfranchising voters.

"We're seeing what appears to be concerted efforts to, frankly, practice voter suppression by eliminating voting locations in some places," said Julia Vaughn, the Executive Director of Common Cause Indiana. "The primary reason for that here in Indiana has been the transition in many counties to vote centers... The trade-off is that any voter can go to any location. So you know, that can be a good thing. It can work well when it's done right, and it can work not so well when it's not implemented correctly."

Indiana moved from individual polling places to single vote-centers starting 20 years ago, Vaughn said.

"It's always a budget crunch for counties," Vaughn said. "And in Indiana, [counties] are the ones who pay for elections. So, trying to save money, and an obvious way to do that with your election budget is to reduce the number of places where you hold the election."

That shows in the statewide figures.

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The I-Team found the total number of Election Day polling places across the state of Indiana dropped by more than half. There were 3,812 polling places statewide in 2012, decreasing to 1,660 in 2022.

Indiana ranks 35th in the country for having an average of 33 Election Day polling places for every 100,000 eligible voters.

Wisconsin ranks 12th with about 57 Election Day polling places for every 100,000 eligible voters. The state recorded having 3,541 polling sites in 2012, compared to 2,537 in 2022.

In Kenosha County, Wisconsin, the number of polling places dropped from 42 polling places in 2012, to 32 in 2022. Election officials there, though, told the I-Team that for the 2024 General Election, they will return to 42 polling sites.

Illinois ranks 8th in the country with about 67 Election Day polling places for every 100,000 eligible voters. The number of polling sites increased from 6,110 polling places in 2012, to 6,145 in 2022.

To find out where your nearest polling place is located, the ABC7 Voter Guide has you covered. Learn more by clicking here.