Secretary of State offices in Springfield closes early

Secretary of State offices in Springfield will close at 2 p.m. today as a result of demonstrations planned in the city.

The closures include the Howlett Building, the Illinois State Library, the Herndon building at 421 E. Capitol Ave. and the driver services facility at 2701 S. Dirksen Parkway. All of the offices will reopen Tuesday.

“After conferring with law enforcement and out of an abundance of caution, the offices are closing at 2 p.m. today,” said Henry Haupt, spokesman for Secretary of State Jesse White.

A demonstration is planned on the Capitol grounds starting at 3 p.m. Monday.

Haupt said that graffiti was spray painted on the Herndon building sometime Sunday. A window in the guard shack at the Visitors Center parking lot on West Edwards Street was also discovered broken.

Monday marked the first day driver services offices reopened after being closed because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Dirksen Parkway office reopened Monday. The Klein Street facility won’t reopen until Tuesday.

Haupt said a large crowd showed up Monday morning for the reopening of the Dirksen Parkway office. The office is limiting the number of people admitted to a driver services office at one time in order to maintain social distancing.

Haupt reminded people that there is no rush to renew expired licenses now that the facilities are reopened. Motorists whose licenses expired while the driver services facilities were closed have until Oct. 1 to renew them.