Chicago Election Website Crashes, Election Officials Direct Voters To Use State Site Instead

Due at least in part to confusion over redistricting-related polling place changes for many Chicagoans, the city's election website buckled and crashed Tuesday under the weight of unusually high web traffic.

The Chicago Sun-Times reports that the website was down Tuesday morning when the city temporarily redirected voters attempting to find out their accurate polling places to the Illinois state Board of Elections website or Google's polling place site.

Jim Allen, the city election board's communications director, told WBEZ that the board's site "is getting deluged with unprecedented levels of traffic, including what we believe are outside voter-service organizations." He said they've never had such problems before.

(Click here to follow live updates on election day in Chicago and here for nationwide updates.)

The city documented 864 cases of voters arriving at incorrect polling places as of 2:24 p.m., according to the Chicago Tribune. One election judge told NBC Chicago the morning was "a little bit of chaos."

While election officials claim that voters were notified of their changed polling places, voter Lynn Rau told Patch that was not the case for her.

"Other people did but we didn't," Rau told Patch at the Welles Park polling place in Ravenswood. "I think they should extend voting because a lot of people will want to vote when they get off work tonight and if they run into what I ran into, they're not going to make it in time before the polls close."

Many other residents have reportedly run into long lines in their attempts to vote in the city.

Polls in Chicago close at 7 p.m., though all those still in line at that time will still be allowed to vote. Any Chicagoans who encounter problems voting are urged to call 312-269-7900.