Voter registration
and all things having to do with elections within the city of Chicago are
administered by the Chicago Board of Elections, while those duties in suburban
Cook County come under the Cook County Clerk, who also has responsibility for a
number of other functions. The Board of
Elections and County Clerk appeared separately before the County Board of
Commissioners to discuss their separate budgets. Both
reported that the proposed 2016 budgets for elections are up only slightly from
2012, the last time there was a Presidential election year, which is the
appropriate comparison: 2% for the County Clerk and 2.67% for
the Chicago Board of Elections. The issue of consolidating the two
election functions also came up, as did the challenge of implementing election
day voter registration for the first time in 2016.
County Clerk, David
Orr
Clerk Orr explained
that his office brings in $2 million more in fees for the County in connection
with the vital records duties than expended in providing those services plus the
duties of issuing tax rates, maintaining information on lobbyists, and preparing
agendas and publishing and maintaining records for the Cook County Board. In particular, he
mentioned the success of cookcountygenealogy.com which helps people
explore their ancestry even as it generates funds for the
County.
There is a separate
fund and division for elections within the Clerk’s office. Costs have been held
down for elections in part by reducing the number of precincts on election day
by over 800 since 2012. This reduction was made possible by the
fact that 30-35% of those voting do so prior to election day, either by using
mail ballots or by using early voting. Clerk
Orr urged support for automatic voter registration. Commissioner Boykin asked what could be done to increase the number of
people voting.
Clerk Orr said he supported moving election day to a
holiday, such as Veterans’ Day. The United States is one of only two
major democracies not to vote on a holiday or weekend. Moving
elections to a holiday would also have the advantage of making it easier to get
election judges – teachers, for example, would be available; and children would
not be in schools, which would make it easier to use schools as polling
places.
The Chicago Board of Elections supported that during
its budget meeting.
Integrity of Mailed In
Ballots
Commissioner
Schneider, who also heads the Illinois Republican Party, said that he is very
comfortable with the procedures in place in the Clerk’s office in dealing with
mail-in ballots. The Commissioner asked that the Clerk details these procedures for those
members of the public listening. The Clerk explained that each envelope
is scanned when it comes into the office to get a digital picture of that piece
of mail.
It is then locked up. Shortly
before election day, all the envelopes received go through a second pass and are
sorted by precinct.
From the initial scan, the office knows how many
ballots for each precinct should be there, and this is verified. The
envelopes are then locked up again until election day when the ballots are
scanned and counted.
Issue of Consolidating the
Two Election Functions
Commissioner Boykin
also asked the Clerk his views on consolidating the election functions of the
Clerk and the Chicago Board of Elections. Clerk Orr stated that it would save money and he
supports it.
However, he sees no political will to do
consolidation, so he does not spend any of his time on this issue. He did
stress that his office and the Chicago Board of Elections regularly consult and
work together where possible. Commissioner Sims asked if
consolidation were done, how might it be done. Clerk
Orr stated that DuPage County has an election board for that county and a new
Cook County election board could be created. Alternatively, the duties of the Chicago Board of Elections could be
transferred to the Cook County Clerk’s office.
Chicago Board of
Elections
No one asked about
consolidation during the budget meeting with the Chicago Board of
Elections. However, Marisel Hernandez, one of the 3 members of that Board, opened
the meeting stressing that the Board was created in 1885-86 to clean up
elections by having this Board barred from contributing or otherwise
participating in partisan politics. Each of these Board members is
appointed by the Chief Judge after he receives applications.
To deal with the
election day registration at the precincts, the Chicago Board of Elections is
creating a new position of Election Coordinator for each polling place. Those in this
position will need to attend two trainings and pass a test on voter
registration.
Also, the Board will be sending a vote by mail
application to each registered voter in Chicago in order to make it more
convenient, as well as a reminder that vote by mail is an option. This
will hopefully result in more people voting by mail as opposed to going to the
polls, thereby making it easier to deal with same day
registration.
Commissioner
Schneider asked whether Chicago, which paid all the cost of the city elections
in 2015, also contributes to the costs of running elections in 2016. The City pays $14
million for the Chicago Board of Elections in 2016; the County will be paying
$17.8 million under the 2016 proposed budget.
Old
Equipment
Both election
authorities are dealing with aging equipment that is approaching 10 years. Both hope that new
equipment will be available for the 2020 election. The
current equipment was purchased with dollars coming from the Federal
government.
There is a huge question as to where the dollars will
come from for future purchases.
-- Priscilla Mims,
League Observer
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