Officials Say They Did A ‘Real Good Job’ On Election Day — But Alders Rip Ballot Shortages, Long Waits

CITY HALL — Chicago Board of Elections leaders defended its handling of last week’s election as alderpeople pressed them Monday over ballot shortages, long lines and other problems that frustrated voters across the city. A coding error caused 24 of the city’s 1,291 precincts to run short of certain ballot styles during the Nov. 3 election, Board of Elections Executive Director Sandra Aspera told the City Council’s Budget and Government Operations Committee. Officials said the city had printed enough ballots overall, but the error misallocated different ballot styles at precincts where voters received different ballots depending on their addresses. The error caused some locations to receive too few of certain styles and too many of others. Aspera apologized to voters who encountered long lines in polling places across the city and said the board has added safeguards to prevent the problem from happening again. “Under my watch, this will not happen again,” Aspera said. W