Many in jail can vote, but exercising that right isn’t easy
By Matt Vasilogambros, Stateline.org
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A Cook County jail detainee uses a touch screen to cast his votes at a polling place in the facility set up for early voting on October 17, 2020 in Chicago, Illinois. (Nuccio DiNuzzo/Getty Images/TNS)
COOK COUNTY, Ill. — The chapel and law library at the Cook County Jail look like any other polling places around the country, with a couple notable exceptions: the monochrome uniforms of the voters and the alert officers keeping an eye on them.
Although Illinoisans convicted of felonies lose their right to vote while serving prison sentences, most of the 6,000 people detained at the jail on Chicago’s southwest side maintain their voting privileges as they await trial or serve time for misdemeanors.