April 23--Some voters might have been prevented from casting ballots in the March primary election in McHenry County because of problems with the county clerk's voter database and lack of adequate communication with poll workers and the public, state election officials said.
Though the issues were significant and should be addressed, none of them distorted the vote count, an Illinois State Board of Elections review concluded.
State Rep. David McSweeney R-Barrington Hills, asked for the review in response to complaints that people weren't able to vote in the March 15 primary because new electronic poll books weren't working. The snafu led to a court order for all county polling places to stay open an extra 90 minutes that night, but some voters and poll workers said they did not receive word of the time extension.
"I'm very unhappy that voters were denied the right to vote," McSweeney said Friday. "We need to make sure that it never happens again."
The report from state elections board General Counsel Ken Menzel called for the county to pretest every electronic polling book and to have enough workers answering phones to respond to complaints.
McHenry County Clerk Mary McClellan, also a Republican, said she agreed with the report's findings and will implement its suggestions.
"I promise it will never happen again," she said.
Both Democratic and Republican party officials were sharply critical of the way the election was handled, but McClellan previously said some of the criticism was overblown and politically motivated. She estimated that about 20 precincts, or about one-tenth of the 212 total precincts, were affected by the problems. She also denied that any polling places failed to remain open late as ordered by the judge, contradicting reports from party officials.
Still, McClellan said she would make sure every electronic polling book is pretested. The polling "books" are actually laptops that poll workers used to check citizen's voter registration status.
McClellan said a private company provided the 650 laptops along with software, hardware, training and maintenance through a $1 million contract. She said the firm was supposed to test all the laptops but only tested a fifth of them.
The county had used the computers successfully in one township last November and in early voting this year, she said.
The clerk also plans to double to 150 the number of county phones available to take calls on Election Day to make sure that voters and poll workers can get through.
McSweeney welcomed those changes but said he hopes the clerk will issue a formal report addressing the problems and solutions and hold public hearings on the situation.
rmccoppin@tribpub.com
