Early primary voting will resume Wednesday after judicial candidate was removed from ballot

CHICAGO - Early voting will resume Wednesday morning in Chicago after a Cook County judicial candidate was removed from the primary ballot.

The Chicago Board of Elections will reopen two early voting sites at 9 a.m.: the downtown super-site at 191 N. Clark St., and at the board’s offices at 69 W. Washington St. on the sixth floor.

Early voting for the primary election began Thursday, but election officials had to pause voting late Friday following a court order to remove Ashonta C. Rice as a candidate for Cook County circuit court judge.

The Illinois Appellate Court entered a stay of enforcement Feb. 5 to take Rice off the Democratic Party ballot ahead of the March 19 election.

Election officials paused operations to reprogram the early voting machines. Democratic vote-by-mail ballots were not impacted because they had not been sent out yet. Those ballots are being reprinted and will be mailed out to voters as soon as possible, according to the election board.

Before voting was paused, 314 ballots were cast on Thursday and Friday, an election board spokesperson said.

Votes cast for Rice aren’t currently being counted as the matter is being appealed to the state Supreme Court, the Sun-Times reported on Sunday.

Early voting locations in all 50 wards will open March 4.