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Tri States Public Radio and NPR News will provide you with updated stories from all of our local and national elections between now and November. The NPR News element below will be updated constantly, and will sometimes provide live coverage and audio from important events leading up to the November elections. You can find all of our local coverage after the jump.Election 2012 News From NPR

No School For Kids On Election Day

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Credit wikimedia

Illinois students could get a day off of school come election day. Schools are often at the heart of a community, metaphorically, if not literally. That's part of the reason they've long been voting sites.

But with shootings at schools across the country, some lawmakers are concerned the practice is dangerous.

Most of the time visitors need to sign in before entering a school; they say allowing anyone in on election day is asking for trouble.

One idea was to ban schools as polling places. But election officials, like the Cook County Clerk, argued that's not viable -- they need all of that space.

Instead, legislators passed a measure that encourages schools to either close or to hold a teachers' institute on election day, so students aren't around. Gov. Pat Quinn signed it into law today.

The plan passed the Senate without objection, but it had sizable opposition in the House. Critics say kids ought to see the good example of adults exercising their right to vote.

Registered sex offenders are not allowed lots of places, including schools. Illinois law provides that a sex offender whose assigned polling place is a school can vote absentee, or early.

Copyright 2014 NPR Illinois | 91.9 UIS

Amanda Vinicky
Amanda Vinicky moved to Chicago Tonight on WTTW-TV PBS in 2017.