Two Election Authorities in Cook County Deal with Similar Issues Including Advent of Election Day Voter Registration in 2016

2016 Cook County Proposed Budget:  County Clerk and Chicago Board of Elections, October 29, 2015

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

Nov. 2, 2011 Budget Departmental Budget Meetings

Chicago Board of Election Comissioners; Cook County Board of Commissioners; Independent Inspector General

Chicago Board of Election Commissioners

Under the proposed budget, this Election Board, which has jurisdiction over all elections within the City of Chicago, will receive $17.4 million from the County.  This covers only 4 employees: the Chairman and 2 Election Commissioners, plus the Executive Director.  In addition, the County pays the fees for election judges and other related expenses as set forth in the statute which created the Board.  The rest of the expenses for conducting elections in 2012 (the primary and general elections), including the salaries and benefits for all other employees, will come from the City and amounts to another $14.2 million for a total of $31.6 million.  The City has about 1.4 million voters, about the same as the suburbs in Cook County, which fall under the election jurisdiction of the County Clerk.  Comm. Schneider noted that the Clerk was asking for $24.6 million, and wondered why the City’s Election Board needed $5 million more.  Chairman Landgdon Neal explained that the County Clerk is able to call upon services of other County Departments, while the Election Board had to provide its own IT, purchasing, and legal counsel, etc.  (Not asked or answered was why the Election Board couldn’t look to the City to provide some of the services the Clerk receives from the County.)

Chairman Neal said that in order to compare the 2012 budget, one should look at the last year in which there was a presidential election; namely, 2008.  The 2008 budget was 1% greater, and included $3 million from the Help America to Vote Act.  A chief reason for the reduction for 2012 is that the Election Board intends to reduce the number of precincts by 20%, which amounts to about 500 less precincts.  Because of Early Voting and “no-fault” Absentee Voting, there are fewer people actually voting on election day, which allows this consolidation without creating long lines.  Fewer precincts mean fewer election judges and fewer sites that have to be rented.

The Election Board is not proposing to add any new touch-screen equipment, and, in fact, the company that supplied what both the City and County have, no longer makes that model.

Chairman Neal touted the 2,000 high school and 2,000 college students who have been helping on election day, and he says that no other election authority in the country can boast so high a number of young people participating.

Unlike past years, none of the Commissioners raised the question about cost savings should the election duties of the Chicago Board of Elections and the County Clerk be merged under one entity.

Cook County Board of Commissioners

While this meeting supposedly was to cover the departments of the Secretary to the Board and each of the County Commissioners, only the budget for the Secretary to the Board was discussed.  Surprisingly, several of the Commissioners took this public meeting time to ask the Secretary, Matthew DeLeon, about any changes in procedures as a result of Mr. DeLeon and part of his staff moving to a different floor from where the Commissioners have their offices. 

The other main area of questions was directed to the two new positions for legal counsel and administrative assistant called for in the budget.  Many of the Commissioners seemed to have forgotten that they had voted to amend the 2011 budget to add these 3 positions.  This was done in the late hours of the day prior to final passage of the budget, which is why the Commissioners may have forgotten about it.  Another reason may be that the positions have still not been filled.  This is due to the fact that they would be exempt from the Shakman decree (which prohibits the hiring and firing based on politics) and so the County had to seek court approval for the positions before filling them.  There were some questions about the need for these positions and whether they could be eliminated in order to provide some money for salary increases for Commissioners staff whose salaries are proposed to be frozen from 2011.

Mr. DeLeon stated that new cameras for the Board room were being purchased that should allow Board and Committee meetings to be broadcast live on the County’s web site.  Commissioners Suffredin, Tobolski and Silvestri all suggested additional equipment, such as tote boards (for recording votes), screens and projection equipment so the audience in the room (and watching on Channel 900 or on the web) could better follow what is occurring.  This is an issue the League recently raised with Commissioners in letters to all and meetings with many of them.

Even though there was no discussion about the Commissioners’ budgets, which the President is recommending be kept at $360,000 for each (same as that in 2011), this observer noted that the President is also recommending that the number of FTEs for Commissioners Collins (1^st) Steele (2^nd), Murphy (6^th), and Gorman (17^th) be reduced to 1 (just themselves and no staff).  I verified with Commissioner Tobolski that this is not a typo in the budget book.  Expect this to change, but obviously, the President was sending a message.

Independent Inspector General

Patrick Blanchard, the Independent Inspector General, has one of the few areas where the number of employees and overall budget is proposed to be increased.  He explained that his office is dealing with an increase of about 10% in complaints, and he expects to add 2 more people to deal with Shakman decree-related oversight.  He stated that he expects that the Federal Court to find that the County and Forest Preserve District (which his office is also dealing with through an inter-governmental agreement) and Recorder of Deeds’ office to be in compliance with the Shakman Decree in 2012, in part because of the oversight to be provided by his office.  If so, the County will save significant money being paid to the Court-appointed compliance officers and other related costs.  (Note that the Sheriff’s office, the other area in the County that had been under court oversight, has been found to be in compliance by the Court earlier this year.)

Comm. Beavers questioned Mr. Blanchard about his investigation into the $90 million error in the County’s 2010 Annual Report.  Mr. Blanchard stated that there were numerous factors which resulted in the error and it was not appropriate to put the blame on a single person.  Comm. Beavers stated that he thought the President had done just that by firing two people, including the prior Comptroller.

-- reported by Priscilla Mims

Finance Committee Budget Hearings – Feb. 4, 2011

Understanding that budget cuts mean people cuts and other implications.

The Finance Committee, which is comprised of all Commissioners, began its series of meetings with all the departments and elected officials of Cook County government to review the proposed budget presented by President Preckwinkle on Feb. 1. Because of the change in Presidents, this proposed budget was presented much later than normal, but it still must be finalized by Feb. 28. As a result, the review is being severely compressed.

Note that one important change from past budget books is the inclusion of information pertaining to grants and full time equivalent (FTE) positions paid by grants under the appropriate departments. In the past, the grant information was segregated separately and FTE positions were not included in totals, making it much more difficult to review and consider. The League has raised this as a transparency issue with county personnel in the past, and so this change in presentation is welcomed.

Bureau of Finance

The County's new Chief Financial officer, Tariq Malhance, did a quick overview of the entire budget and then presented his budget.

Overall, there is a 2% reduction in operating costs from last year ($3.007 billion vs. $3.057 billion in 2010) and a reduction of 1,795 FTE (Full Time Equivalent employee) positions. Much of these reductions is driven by the reduction in the county's sales tax (a loss of $161 million) and a rise in the costs of salaries, pensions and benefits. There were a number of questions by Commissioner Collins trying to understand the underlying assumptions for the budget. In particular, she seemed to be questioning whether the projected revenues were too low.

In contrast to Facilities Management (see below), the Commissioners did not focus on the reduction of FTEs in the Bureau (down by 40, or about 1 in every 4.5 FTE positions). The Revenue area is restructuring to focus on delinquent payers, particularly the cigarette tax. The Comptroller talked about doing more with less, increasing the use of automation, and expects to be able to issue the 2010 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report by May 31, far earlier than has been done previously. Commissioner Suffredin suggested that if the county had the same definitions for the County amusement tax as are used for the Chicago tax, that might make it easier to partner with the city to do audits and eliminate some contested payments. Commissioner Silvestri suggested also looking at partnering with suburban communities.

Commissioner Gainer asked whether it would make sense to have a risk manager in the Sheriff's department. Lisa Walik, the Bureau's Risk Manager, said that having a risk manager at the Health & Hospitals System has worked well, so she thought having one in the Sheriff's department would also be a good idea.

Facilities Management

James D'Amico, the Director, said that his department had complied with the President's directive to cut the budget by 16%. As a result, the budget is $5.36 million less than in 2010 with 117.4 fewer FTEs, or more than 1 in 4 employees. Mr. D'Amico said that in order to reach the target % budget reduction, more employees have to be let go because of the increase in salaries for employees in that department approved by the Board last year.

Having fewer employees means that his department will no longer be able to rebuild spaces for departments, and he stated that his department can no longer bear the cost of repairing damage caused by vandalism in the County Jail or the Juvenile Temporary Detention Center. He also stated that he believes that if the costs of repairs (amounting to about $2.5 million) done by Facilities Management are borne by those areas, they would have the incentive to take steps to see that the vandalism was reduced. Mr. D'Amico also suggested a way for the County to obtain new revenues would be to charge for parking, as is done at the garage at the Juvenile Temporary Detention Center. There is a $2/day charge (or $25 for a monthly pass). He stated that charging at other County garages (such as at the Criminal Courts building) would produce $2.5 million. (If charge more than $2, the city tax of over $1 kicks in, which means that County would have to charge quite a bit more to get more than $2.)

Several Commissioners raised concerns about entire classes of employees being let go, such as Laborers and Pipe Coverers. There are plans to use outside contractors when needed, but the costs for them will likely be almost double that of employees. Mr. D'Amico said that he looked at areas where there would be less demand for services in the future, where performance was not at national standards, and where outside contractors where already being used. Commissioners continued to be concerned as to whether this budget has sufficient money for the entire fiscal year 2011.

Chicago Board of Elections

Because the only elections in 2011 under this Board's supervision are limited to city elections, the Chicago budget picks up all the costs this year except for the salaries of the three appointed members of the Board of Elections and the Executive Director, which are in this budget.

Bureau of Economic Development

This is a new bureau that is made up of Planning & Development, Capital Planning, Building & Zoning, and P.O.E.T. (the latter which is totally funded by the Federal Govt. and which has been in the news for problems). The capital budget (which last year was $519 million) is not being presented with this proposed operating budget. A complete review of capital projects is being undertaken, and the department expects to present a proposed capital budget in a couple of months. The Building and Zoning department covers unincorporated Cook County. P.O.E.T. has a new head and will be renamed and restructured to improve its effectiveness.

-- Submitted by Priscilla Mims

CC Finance Committee Meeting on Proposed 2010 Budget, October 28, 2009: Chicago Board of Elections

The Chicago Board of Elections proposed budget is a 5% increase over 2008, the last comparable year when there was a primary and general election as there will be in 2010. This Board oversees all elections within Chicago. Suburban Cook County elections are overseen by the County Clerk. In addition to the money for the Chicago Board of Elections that will be funded by the Cook County budget (and the proposal is for $18.3 million), the City of Chicago also funds elections (and the proposal in the City budget is $17 million).

Changes to the election process per new Illinois laws that impact costs include providing early voting on Sunday at 2 additional sites besides downtown, a longer grace period voter registration, and requiring that voters be notified when they fail to vote for any of the Illinois Constitutional offices (governor, liuetenant. governor, attorney general, secretary of state, comptroller, and treasurer). In the case of the scanners for paper ballots, the scanner will initially reject the ballot with the message that there was an undervote. The voter can then take back the ballot and vote for one of the people running for the office or can ask that the election judge hit the override button so the machine will accept the ballot with the undervote.

Another major change is that Illinois now allows absentee ballots to be requested without the need for a reason. The expectation is that more and more people will take advantage of this so that the amount included in the budget for postage (to mail out the absentee ballots) has been increased. Illinois law has also increased the amount to be paid to election judges.

Commissioner Schneider questioned why there was a huge increase in the amounts proposed to cover benefits for the 4 employees included in the County budget (the other 124 employees are covered by the Chicago budget). The Risk Manager under the Bureau of Finance was asked to check this. Commissioner Gainer questioned why the Board of Elections has not attempted to consolidate any of the 2500 precincts (which would reduce costs). The chair said the Board wanted to wait to do this until after the wards are redistricted following the 2010 census.

--Submitted by Observer Pris Mims