Feb. 25--Election Day complaints roll into the Chicago Board of Election Commissioners office throughout the day and get logged for the public to see.
On Tuesday, one complaint centered on an apparent argument between judges at the Heritage International Christian Church in the 37th Ward over the proper method to reheat snack food.
"Judge does not like the placement of food and fighting with precinct captain over placement of food. Oven vs. microwave," according to one complaint. "Investigator told precinct captain to stay away from (one judge). She's been arguing with people all day."
At the Armour Square apartments polling place in the 11th Ward, investigators were sleuthing the case of the missing tables and chairs, flummoxed by the lack of furnishings despite paperwork that showed it was delivered Feb. 17.
By early Tuesday afternoon there were about 200 cases of electioneering reported, including one complaint from a 33rd Ward voter who arrived early to the Ceviche Peruvian restaurant to find "cars outside outside of the polling place had signs plastered for the alderman, belonging to the elections judges."
"... There is no way that the vehicles are operable with the signs placed in the way that they were on and throughout the car," the voter reported.
An investigator was dispatched and had the signs removed because they violated the 100-foot electioneering restriction.
On Tuesday evening, city elections officials said they dismissed two election judges.
One was in the 4th Ward, Precinct 18, where an election judge disrupted the voting process with loud and unruly behavior, told an investigator she would not work, threatened a complaining witness and used racial slurs against the investigator's supervisor, election officials said.
The other was in the 11th Ward, Precinct 1, where an election judge engaged in inappropriate behavior, destroyed campaign materials, confronted a person in the polling place with what appeared to be pepper spray and left the polling place without the consensus of fellow judges.
