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February 2, 2010

Some Illinois counties don’t use mandated computer chips in voting machines

By Arthur E. Foulkes

ROBINSON, Ill. — Tuesday was primary election day in Illinois and some Illinois counties – including two in the Wabash Valley – broke the law.

County clerks in Edgar and Clark counties defied a new Illinois election law when they decided not to install computer chips into ballot-counting machines. Those chips would cause the machines to reject ballots with “undervotes” – meaning the voter did not cast a vote in all races.

The chips were mandated by state election officials under a 2007-state law aimed at preventing unintentional undervoting in state-wide contests. By causing ballots with undervotes to be rejected, the law’s authors hoped to signal voters who did not realize they had failed to vote in every race.

But critics of the new law say it has serious problems.

“It violates the voter’s right to a secret ballot,” said Becky Kraemer, clerk and recorder of Edgar County and one of the county clerks who chose not to install the computer chips.

“I just couldn’t do it,” she said.

The law violates a voter’s right to a secret ballot, critics say, because if a ballot is not rejected, it is clear that a voter cast a vote in all races – even those with just one candidate.

For example, Tuesday evening in Crawford County, where the law was followed, voter Elleanor Laswell came into a polling station in the town of Robinson to cast her primary ballot. The Accu-Vote voting machine did not reject her ballot, making it clear that she left no race on the ballot unmarked – even those with only one candidate.

Later, also in Robinson’s fourth ward, a woman who asked not to be named, cast her ballot. It was rejected, showing she had left at least one race without a vote. An election official had to then inform the woman she had an “undervote.” The woman said she understood and replaced her ballot in the machine. This time, in order to keep the ballot from being rejected, the polling station official had to press a button on the front of the machine. After two failed attempts and the intervention of a second polling station judge, the ballot went into the machine and was counted.

This points to another problem, critics of the law say. Election judges are supposed to stand five feet from the ballot machines when voters cast their ballots, said Crawford County Clerk Patty Lycan. “It’s kind of hard to push the [reject-override] button while standing five feet away.”

Lycan chose to install the chips in Crawford County’s voting machines, but she doesn’t like the new law and hopes it is changed before the November election, she said.

“I feel it’s an improper law,” Lycan said. Still, she decided to use the chips in order to avoid any possible legal challenge to her county’s election’s results or even the possibility that the county would have to repeat the election, she said.

“I do commend those county clerks who held strong” and chose not to install the chips, Lycan said.

Clerks in Edgar, Clark and McHenry counties were known to have chosen not to use the new computer chips during Tuesday’s primary. It wasn’t known Tuesday how many other clerks followed suit.

Even the computer chip mandated by state election officials for Tuesday’s primary failed to follow the letter of the law, Edgar County Clerk Kraemer noted. That law states that ballots should only be rejected if state-wide races were left without votes. But – in the 63 Illinois counties using Accu-Vote ballot machines – the computer chip approved by the state election board actually causes ballots to be rejected if any race is left without a vote.

Prior to Tuesday’s primary, county clerks said they worried the new law would also cause big delays at polling stations. However, voter turnout across the state was low Tuesday, which helped election officials deal with the new system.

“It has gone fairly well,” said Mickie Owens, an election judge in Robinson’s fourth ward when asked about Tuesday’s balloting. However, she added, “if it had been busy, it would have been fairly tough.”

Virtually all of Illinois’ county clerks oppose the new law and hope to get it repealed by November, Kraemer said. Until then, she stands by her decision to defy the new state law, which she believes violates the higher law of a citizen’s right to a secret ballot.

“If I’m going to violate the law, I’m going to do it on the side of the voter,” Kraemer said. “I just feel like the voters are supporting me.”



Arthur Foulkes can be reached at (812) 231-4232 or arthur.foulkes@tribstar.com.

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