MENDOTA – It’s almost election time in the United States.
But to vote for the president of the country or any of the other voteable positions in our federal, state, or local government, you have to be registered.
For LaSalle County residents, there is now another place to get registered, the Graves-Hume Public Library in Mendota as staff members Holly Christman and Jen Bresley are now certified registrars.
“It’s pretty cool to be a registrar. We actually received a phone call asking if we registered people to vote,” said Christman, who has been with the library for 12 years. “I approached Emily (Kofoid, the library’s director) and she said we used to have two people who were registrars, but they’re no longer at the library. I told her I’d be interested in doing it.
“Emily called to figure out what we had to do. I normally workdays and Jen works nights, so that way we have one on each shift to help register people. We had to go through a booklet and be educated on what registrars do.”
The Graves-Hume registrar service is for LaSalle County residents and can only be done at the library. Those wishing to register to vote at the library do not have to be library members.
Although Bresley and Christman recently became certified, they will have to recertify after Nov. 30 as all Illinois registrars are on the same two-year certified timeline.
“I am super excited, especially for someone who is younger and is trying to get younger people to register to vote and to vote,” Bresley said. “I am happy and honored to do that for our community.”
To be eligible to register to vote, a LaSalle County resident, similar to all United States citizens, has to be at least 18 years old to vote or will become 18 on or before the date of the next election. Also, if the citizen has been a resident or will have been a resident of his or her precinct for 30 days before the date of the next election.
The person must bring two forms of identification with verification of name and address.
There are no registrations 27 days preceding any election, including the upcoming election on Nov. 5.
For information regarding voting in LaSalle County, all information can be found at lasallecountyil.gov, under departments and elections/voting.
Kofoid is proud of Bresley and Christman for stepping up and giving LaSalle County residents a place to go to register to vote.
“This is another service that we can do for the community,” Kofoid said. “It goes in line with us being a community center.”
