Several Illinois State University students expressed frustration with the long lines before they could cast their votes today. Those long lines outside the Bone Student Center consisted almost entirely of students seeking same-day voter registration, which is allowed in Illinois.

ISU student Sophia Ramos said she waited about an hour and 40 minutes. She said she was surprised at how long the line was when she arrived at the Bone Student Center.

“I was definitely shocked, I was very confused,” she said. “But it was kind of a cool experience.”

The Bone Student Center is ISU's only polling location on campus, but also accepts all voters within the jurisdiction of the McLean County Clerk's office. That's everyone in the county except Bloomington voters.

Ramos said she felt the long lines could deter first-time voters like herself.

“Just because it’s a long line,” she said. “We still pushed ourselves to come and it was fine.”

Regardless of the wait, Ramos still expressed that she still enjoyed the voting process. “It was a fun experience,” she said. “I think it was interesting… it was pretty cool.”

Other students also lined up to register and vote, including three freshmen. Iyona Benson, Phikia Lewis and Vallesia Robinson all agreed the wait was about two hours.

“It actually didn’t take me long to get in there, there was a line,” Robinson said.

They said that although the wait was long, the pace was still good. “For as many students as it is, it’s pretty quick,” Lewis said.

Benson added: “We were together and distracted each other.”

They also agreed that the long lines could discourage new voters, and they had an example.

“We (saw) a friend of ours and she literally walked in and we were basically at the front of the line,” Robinson said.

Lewis finished her sentence and said, “She was like, 'I don't think I'm going to vote.'”

Robinson replied: “I thought, 'Queen, I told you to register early and it wouldn't be a problem.'”

Benson agreed with her two friends. “I think some people don’t even care about voting when you see the long lines…,” she said.

Benson and Lewis agreed with Robinson, saying early registration would help more students avoid long lines and be more willing to vote.

What officials say

When asked about the lines at the Bone Student Center, McLean County Clerk Kathy Michael said she was not aware of any complaints from students.

“They are excited about being able to register to vote and vote. They thought they missed it, so they were excited about it,” she said.

Michael said her office has doubled the number of election judges at this location compared to 2020.

Representatives from ISU's Center for Civic Engagement were on site and provided voters with information to assist them with same-day voter registration. The center also hired the nonprofit Pizza to the Polls, which sent Rosatti's to those in line around 2:30 p.m.

“We're trying to do things like that, just provide convenience, to make sure people are taken care of while they're waiting in line,” said Paige Buschman, assistant director of the center. “It's pretty clear we don't need to convince them. You arrive and choose to stay in line. We tell them how long the wait is and they get in line anyway. They are really motivated to participate.”

Since the Center for Civic Engagement was only founded in 2017, they didn't have much information from which to make recommendations.

“We don’t have solid data from 2020 because most people were not on campus,” Buschman said. “It was hard for us to predict voter turnout and we are learning a lot from this election.”

Buschman said changes in line management could ease the same-day registration bottleneck. But with lines stretching at times from the polling place in the Brown Ballroom to the doors to Milner Library, future presidential elections could require hiring more staff or a second polling place on campus.

“Other than increasing staffing again, which I'm sure the clerk will talk about, I don't know that much else could have been done,” Buschman said.

The center hosted more than 60 events and presentations and sent four campus emails with information explaining the voting process and encouraging early voting.

“Continuing to advance early voting and online voter registration will be important to our future success,” Buschman said. “The bottom line is that the Bone Student Center is the largest building on campus and the Brown Ballroom is one of the largest buildings in the Bone. If we are at capacity, we need to do more with early voting.”

Vidette senior editor Maggee Bleyer and Vidette reporter Cole Loiacano contributed to this story.