This year’s midterm elections were filled with controversy over the placement of a central polling place for students, putting Champaign County Clerk Mark Shelden at the center of the dispute.
Editors note: This article is part of The Daily Illini’s semester in review edition. These articles are meant to round-up the most important news of the Fall 2010 semester.
The Illinois student senate passed a resolution that called for the centrally located polling place on campus to be at the Illini Union. Shelden, who is stepping down at the end of the year to become chief of staff for U.S. Rep. Tim Johnson, R-15, adamantly opposed the idea, calling for the location to be moved to Gregory Place in Urbana.
Shelden said the Union should not be used as a polling location because it would be difficult to enforce the “no electioneering law,” which prohibits campaigning within one hundred feet of a polling location.
“First reason, it’s a hotbed of political activity,” Shelden said regarding the Illini Union. “It’s inappropriate to have a polling location where two political parties (the College Republicans and College Democrats) have their headquarters.”
Get The Daily Illini in your inbox!
Shelden also said Champaign residents could not consider the Illini Union accessible, citing that the Union is difficult to access for Champaign community members who would have to drive in.
“I just don’t think over the course of 18 days that it can go smoothly in a place like this,” Shelden said.
Devin Mapes, president of the College Democrats and senior in LAS, later said in a debate against the president of the College Republicans that the democrats strongly supported the Union as the polling place.
“We felt the location for early voting should be put in a high traffic and visibility area and one most identifiable by students we felt was the Union,” Mapes said.
Mike Kozlowski, president of the College Republicans and junior in LAS, said he supported Shelden’s final decision in the debate.
“It is his job as County Clerk to see that polling is done correctly and he felt that the Union was unacceptable,” Kozlowski said.
Shelden clashed with State Senator Mike Frerichs, D-52, several times on the issue, with Frerichs accusing Shelden of changing the location for political reasons.
Frerichs supported the Illini Union, and criticized Shelden’s decision to sign a lease at Gregory Place.
Frerichs said that while Shelden already signed an $800 lease for Gregory Place, the Illini Union would have been free.
“I found it ironic that after complaining about the cost of this, rather than accepting the polling place that is offered for free, he chooses to sign a lease and actually pay money to have a polling place that’s not as convenient for students on campus,” he said.
