McLean County Clerk encourages people to vote but stay safe amidst severe weather warning

Posted on April 4, 2023

*Voting is from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Tuesday. There is a separate election commission for the city of Bloomington. (WJBC File Photo)*

MCLEAN COUNTY – With a severe weather warning in place for Tuesday afternoon, McLean County Clerk Kathy Michael believes more people opted to vote early on Monday.

For those voting on Tuesday she said safety is more important than voting.

“What we’ve decided and I think anybody with common sense would decide is that your health and life comes before anything. If anything happens that gets blown away God forbid. We’ll have election another day,” said Michael.

The Unit 5 Referendum is once again on the ballot. The referendum will increase the district’s education fund tax rate by nearly a dollar. Officials said the referendum is to help the school board with a nearly $12 million deficit. The referendum was rejected by voters in the November elections. A breakdown of the Unit 5 Tax Rate Projection

Michael said she believes the referendum and the contested school board races are a driving force behind the increase of early voters.

“I think we’ll be over 20% because of the Unit 5 Tax Referendum, the school board races that we haven’t seen in the past. So, it’s really generating a lot of interest. So we’ll see,” Michael said.

Voting is from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Tuesday. There is a separate election commission for the city of Bloomington.

Same-day registration is an option. Two forms of identification with one having a current address are needed. Acceptable forms of identification include a driver’s license, a bill, a passport or military, school, work or university ID. Click here to see a full list of acceptable identification.

WMBD-TV can be reached at [email protected].

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