I recently wrote a letter to Chicago Board of Election Commissioners requesting polling places at Chicago Police Department stations be reassigned. To have Chicagoans voting at police stations disregards the police brutality and climate of distrust that exists between minority communities and the police.

See the letter and locations of police station polling places below. Also please share it with your colleagues, family and friends. I’m hoping we can have all of the 16 precincts assigned to vote at a police station moved to a different public location.

To Whom It May Concern:

My name is Kara Crutcher, and I have lived and voted in Chicago for most of my life. It was recently brought to my attention upon receiving my voter registration card in the mail, that my polling place is a Chicago Police Department station in Jefferson Park. I have only lived in Jefferson Park since this past summer, so voting in this neighborhood is new for me. And I must say that I was incredibly shocked and upset to find out that I would be voting in that space.

Once I learned that my polling place was a Chicago police station, I immediately referred to the Chicago Board of Election Commissioners website to see whether or not this was the case in other Chicago neighborhoods. I looked through the entire list of polling places for all fifty wards in the city, and found that sixteen precincts will be voting for the presidential primary election at Chicago Police Department stations. To my understanding, voting must occur in a public building, so technically speaking a police station is a viable option. However, we do not live in an ideal world. We live in a city and country in which cases of police brutality and state violence against people of color have been happening for decades. I don’t know how often or for how long police stations have been used as polling places, but I do know that now that I am aware, I cannot remain silent on this issue.

Historically, people of color and women have had to fight tirelessly for the right to vote in this country. Even after being granted the right to vote, measures such as the “grandfather clause” in Louisiana and literacy tests in the Jim Crow south have been enacted to specifically target African Americans and keep them from exercising their basic rights as American citizens. While we live in a new day and age, we cannot disregard the historical ramifications of those actions and the intimidation that various groups of people once faced in order to cast their votes throughout the country. While there are now legal measures in place that prevent intimidation in the polling place, the mere fact that several communities within Chicago are scheduled to vote at police departments is a complete disregard of social dynamics that exist within this city.

No matter what I or anyone else may believe about specific cases in which civilians have been killed by the police, for example, Rekia Boyd and Laquan McDonald, no one can deny the fact that statistically, African and Hispanic Americans are killed by police officers and incarcerated at astronomically higher rates than any other group. When I researched the location of every Chicago police station that will be used as a polling place, I saw them in locations such as Englewood, West Lawn, Morgan Park, Auburn Gresham, and Garfield Park, all of which have populations that are predominately black American and/or Hispanic American. That’s not to say there are none of these polling places in predominately white neighborhoods, after all I live in Jefferson Park and there is another in Wrigleyville. However, I believe that no one should be going to a police station to vote. Having polling places in police stations creates an environment that is not conducive to all Americans feeling comfortable and safe in exercising their rights considering the relationship that has existed between authoritative figures and people of color. I do believe that these locations set a bad precedent and will disproportionately keep those voters from turning out.

In sum, I’m writing this because I felt that I had to as a black American woman who votes to honor those that fought and died so that I am able to. I hear the conversations, and witness the distrust that exists between the police and minority communities. It is unfortunate that things are the way that they are, but we cannot and should not disregard the situation at hand. I respectfully request that all polling places at Chicago Police Department stations be moved to other public locations, so that everyone feels as if they can securely cast their vote this election season. And I truly hope that one day, we reach the point where each of us is actually able to feel safe amongst those whose job it is to serve and protect us all.

Respectfully,

Kara Crutcher

City of Chicago TENTATIVE/PRELIMINARY List of Polling Places For the March 15, 2016 Primary Election can be found here.*

 

Ward	Precinct	Polling Place	Address
3	13	Chicago Police Station	1718 S State St (South Loop)
11	5	Chicago Police Station	3120 S Halsted St (Bridgeport)
16	9 and 34	Chicago Police Station	1438 W 63rd St (Englewood)
17	10	Chicago Police Station	7808 S Halsted St (Auburn Gresham)
19	43	Chicago Police Station	1900 W Monterey Av (Morgan Park)
23	20	Chicago Police Station	3420 W 63rd St (West Lawn- Ford City)
24	27 and 40	Chicago Police Station	3151 W Harrison St (Kedzie Homan Blue Line/ West Side)
39	6 and 31	Chicago Police Station	4650 N Pulaski Rd (Albany Park)
40	1	Chicago Police Station	5400 N Lincoln Av (Lincoln Square)
40	28	Chicago Police Station	6464 N Clark St (Rogers Park)
44	26 and 36	Chicago Police Station	850 W Addison St (Wrigleyville)
45	34	Chicago Police Station	5151 N Milwaukee Av (Jefferson Park)

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Kara Crutcher : KFC | Walking Barefoot | Music Always Playing | Heroine Enthusiast | All Things Yellow | Get Hype | Uncontrollable Laughter | Staying Up To Watch The Sunrise | Travel | Tacos | Fascination With My Fears | UPenn Alum | Chi-Town Native | Trying To Be A Citizen Of The World I 

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