CHICAGO — Chicago’s most active voting precinct has an unlikely cornerstone. A big chunk of its voters don’t cast ballots at an elementary school gym or a library — they vote from jail.
Voting at the Cook County Jail has risen sharply since the jail added pioneering in-person polling places in 2020. Incarcerated voters say they feel more heard as voting rights groups work to educate and register inmates, and politicians are taking note of the increasingly involved voters.
The sprawling facility at 2700 S. California in Little Village became the first jail in the country to operate as a precinct with in-person voting in March 2020, according to the Cook County sheriff’s office. Inmate voting soared following the addition.
