With just one week to go before the Nov. 8 general election, DuPage officials are predicting the day will go smoothly.
“We have same-day voter registration at the polling place, so this time it’s going to be extraordinarily high volume,” said Robert Saar, DuPage Election Commission executive director. “We’re also still looking for about 500 more people to work as election judges, but we’re otherwise ready to go.”
The county has added 113 new precincts, bringing the total to 859. At the same time, the number of polling places has been reduced to 254, a move that election officials say will shorten wait times.
Looking to the last general election where there was no incumbent presidential candidate – 2008 – as a guide, Saar said 76 percent of the county’s 551,280 registered voters cast ballots. With roughly 615,000 DuPage voters now, that would mean 469,000 ballots will be cast with that percentage of turnout, he said.
“You also must take into account that an average 12.6 voters out of 100 will use same-day registration,” he said. “Theoretically, we could end up with 56,000 more voters on the rolls, come election day. Realistically, I’m expecting 30,000 across our 254 locations.”
Considering the contentious presidential election and the Republican Party recruiting its own poll watchers, the DuPage Election Commission will be especially vigilant about electioneering and bullying. Saar said there is zero tolerance for bullying, and all election judges have been advised to watch for suspicious behavior.
“Free and fair elections are the bedrock of our society,” DuPage County State’s Attorney Robert Berlin said in a statement. “To safeguard this fundamental right, as I do in all elections, I will assign assistant state’s attorneys and special investigators as election monitors to visit polling places throughout DuPage County on election day. I want to make it perfectly clear that any allegations of bullying, intimidation or any other activities designed to influence or otherwise harass voters will not be tolerated by my office and will be met with the full force of the law.”
Polling places will be staffed by about 3,200 election judges, and there also will be registrars for new voters and technical judges who set up the polling places and voting machines.
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“The job pays $130,” Saar said, adding there are positions to fill.. “It’s a great opportunity for high school juniors and seniors, college students and retirees to take part in democracy and to learn how elections work at the most fundamental level. We need you as soon as possible, so please contact us and we’ll put you to work.”
Election judges have received additional training to deal with write-in ballots. The election commission was sued earlier this year when a write-in candidate in the primary election was credited with fewer votes than he claimed. A subsequent recount uncovered 172 additional tallies.
“That problem occurred because the number of actual write-ins did not correspond to the summary number on each sheet,” Saar said. “It simply was a ‘blind spot’ in the audit. From now on, we’ll be paying special attention to that.”
Election judges and other aspects of the election are representative of both political parties.
“Every critical component that we do is done by bipartisan teams,” Saar said. “A representative from each party is in the car together driving the ballots and the memory cards from the polling places to election headquarters. There’s bipartisan handling of voting equipment and doing the post-election audit where they’re counting the paper tapes from the voting machines.”
Saar also assured that the voting data is completely safe from being hacked.
“We’ve been ‘sandboxing’ for 10 years now,” he said. “The ‘sandbox’ means the system is self-contained and is not connected to the internet in any way. Also, everything we do has a chain of custody and an audit trail.”
The election commission conducts a random hand recount of the paper tapes from five percent of the touch-screen voting machines.
“It’s a great tool to increase public confidence in the results of an election,” Saar said. “It hurts when candidates lose by just a few votes after they put their hearts and souls into their campaigns. But we haven’t had a single race go before a judge because the result of our bipartisan recount was still in dispute.”
Saar pointed out advantages that DuPage and Peoria have as the only two Illinois counties with an election commission.
“An election commission has open public meetings on a regular schedule, both major political parties are represented for policy decisions and the public has an opportunity to suggest ideas, express their opinions and bring grievances,” he said. “With a county clerk’s office running elections, there is no legal obligation for them to do that.”
Officials said about 10 percent of DuPage residents already have voted, either at commission headquarters or at 10 additional early voting locations that opened throughout the county on Oct. 24th. Illinois is one of 37 states and the District of Columbia that permits early voting. It also is one of four states, along with Alaska, Maryland and Ohio, that allows Sunday voting.
“The last couple of days are going to be very heavy for early voting,” Saar said. “The closer you get to the election, more people have made their decision and they want to avoid any long lines. Also, voter registration is available at every early voting site.”
Saar’s vision is for Illinois to adopt a permanent vote by mail with only a one-time registration for all residents.
“The idea is catching on,” he said. “When you have open voting by mail, it becomes an integral part of candidate campaign messages. If we can get 30 or 40 percent voting by mail, then the number of polling places and judges needed on election day also will drop proportionately.”
