An 'Odd Couple' Bonds Over Early Voting

Early voting turnout may have been meager in Northbrook, but at least there was plenty of chili for the two election judges posted at .

Paul Glombowski, a retired firefighter from Mount Prospect, brought in his homemade chocolate chili one day to share with fellow election judge Robert Colbert. The two worked the polls for early voting from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. every day at Village Hall, beginning March 14 and ending Thursday, March 31, when total votes counted clocked in just below 400. With several days where the number of people voting was in the single digits, chili was a highlight of the experience.

“It’s a 40-year-old recipe,” said Glombowski, one he first got from his wife and then made for his fellow firefighters every Saturday while serving with the Des Plaines Fire Department. The unsweetened Baker's chocolate “just gives it a mellow taste,” he explained. 

Glombowski has worked as an election judge for the past nine years, many of them in Northbrook. Two years ago, he was honored by the Cook County Clerk's office for his service as a judge. Typically, he said, the polls are a little more exciting than this year.  

“Northbrook is normally the third busiest election site,” he said. “The citizens in Northbrook really come out and vote en masse.” 

But this year, he said, there isn’t much on the ballot to draw people out. A race for three spots on the board of trustees has just three candidates: incumbents James Karagianis and A.C. Buehler III and newcomer . Also uncontested are elections for the park district board, library board and several local school districts. The two hot button issues are ones that affect only a segment of Northbrook’s population: a race with five candidates vying for four seats on the School board of trustees and in School .

As of 5 p.m. Thursday, March 31, when early voting officially ended, the Cook County Clerk’s office reported its unofficial total of 379 people voting at Village Hall—in contrast to 3,221 people at and 2,094 at Chicago Heights City Hall, the two sites with the greatest voter turnout.

With just a handful of voters trickling into Village Hall on many days, Glombowski and Colbert said they had a lot of time to get to know each other.  The two had never met before this year, although both had worked as election judges in the past. But after two weeks together, they’ve developed a repartee that Glombowski jokingly compares to “wedded bliss.”

“I learned a lot about his family and his friends,” said Colbert.

“Translation: he babbles a lot,” quipped Glombowski. 

Glombowski learned that Colbert is a retired employee of Motorola, recommends a pizza place called Chicago Pizza and Grinders on Clark, and grew up in Milwaukee, among other things.

“It’s easier to work with a guy,” Glombowski said. “With a girl, you have to have your company manners.”

In addition to learning about each other, the pair also got to learn about the voters. 

“Sometimes we kidnap voters, make them tell us about their family, too,”  Glombowski joked. He recalled meeting a couple of men who had served as pilots in World War II, as well as a man who had helped transport General Patton’s troops. 

Colbert said he spoke to someone whose grandfather saw the train carrying Abraham Lincoln’s body as it headed through Chicago from New York in 1865.

By law, election judges must be representative of both parties. Colbert is a Democrat, while Glombowski is a Republican. The pair said that during their two-week stint at Northbrook Village Hall, even politics came up—occasionally.

“A lot of times, we find we agree on stuff more than we disagree,” Glombowski said. “Both of us are really strong defenders of a person’s right to vote.” 

At five minutes to 5 p.m. on Thursday, Glombowski stood up and called out, “The polls will close in five minutes!”

“We have to do that,” he explained. 

Then he sat back down at the table with Colbert for the last five minutes of their job together. 

“We see each other more than our wives,” he joked. “He couldn’t find a better partner.”   

The polls will be open again on Election Day, April 5, from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. A list of polling locations can be found on the Cook County Clerk’s website.