Calling on all election judges to step forward

MCHENRY COUNTY, Il – You’re probably in the process of figuring out what method of voting works best for yourself because the General Election is less than two months away and vote by mail ballots will be mailed to voters beginning on September 24. The options for voting in Illinois are mail in (absentee ballot), early voting, or voting on Election Day, November 3.

The problem for county clerks running a smooth election process for the General Election is not in the number of voting options.

The problem is the county clerks are uncertain how election judges may react to coronavirus updates before early voting and Election Day voting in Illinois.

That’s why interest in voting by mail is receiving significant attention. The Kane County Clerk has already received more than 75,000 online applications for Vote by Mail ballots of the 211,000 registered voters that were mailed “Vote by Mail” ballot applications.

The McHenry County Clerk reminds voters that “due to COVID-19, all 2020 General Election voters are encouraged to cast a ballot prior to Election Day, either by mail or during early voting.” Also the restrictions for selecting an absentee ballot have been eased, according to Joe Tirio, the County Clerk and Recorder for McHenry County. “You no longer need an ‘excuse’ to vote by mail. Any person otherwise eligible to vote in person may vote by mail,” Tirio said.

Tirio and his staff and Kane County Clerk Jack Cunningham and his office are doing the leg work right now, preparing for any potential snags. In “normal” conditions where the county clerks are not worried about a pandemic, the potential snags for early voting and election day voting might involve computer glitches or politicking too close to a polling site.

However, in a year where coronavirus related news can one day show an increase in positive cases and hospitalizations or the next day show a drop in hospitalizations and deaths, health departments can’t predict with any accuracy what the atmosphere of concern will be a week or even a day before the General Election.

Tirio and Cunningham have examined scenarios of pre-election checks and run-throughs where things can go wrong. They’ve worked out methods for quick repairs. Yet, they’ve never encountered a pandemic before.

“We don’t know what the challenges will be for Election Day because we are facing something new here that we didn’t have before,” Cunningham said. But the most likely problem appears to be a shortage of election judges. Tirio and Cunningham know the majority of judges are generally in their mid to late 60s.

Cunningham typically has 1,500 judges ready for an election.

“Right now, there’s a pandemic of virus and a pandemic of fear. Our goal is to make sure we protect all of our judges and make them secure to come in and make the polling places secure for the voters,” Cunningham said.

The county clerks right now are in a campaign to encourage people to serve as election judges. In McHenry County, Tirio said election judges are paid $10 an hour, plus they get paid for training.

“Depending on the tasks you are willing to undertake and the kind of election judge, you might get more. But it starts at about $10 an hour for a 15 hour day and about four hours of certified training for something in the neighborhood of $190,” Tirio said.

The work includes setting up election equipment, signing in voters, and providing assistance to voters when it’s necessary. Cunningham said potential election judges in Kane County must be certified first. They’ll take the three hour course, then upon certification receive $200 for the day’s work.

As to how many election judges Kane County and McHenry County will need for early voting and Election Day voting, Tirio and Cunningham don’t want anyone to panic that they’d be caught short as was the case in Louisville, Kentucky about a month ago.

“They had their primary and the population of Louisville is 600,000 people and they had one polling place,” Tirio said. One thing Tirio can say with certainty is that the November 3 General Election will not resemble what happened back in the March primary.

“We were scrambling to get sanitation and literally sending friends and family members to every store that could supply masks and bottles of hand sanitizer,” Tirio said. The list of stores with these supplies was very short. “This time, we have hundreds of gallons of hand sanitizer as well as gloves, cloth masks, face shields, and wipes. We even have a small supply of masks for voters who left theirs at home and are waiting to vote at the polls,” Tirio said.

Both county clerks will direct their election judges to make sure polling booths are thoroughly sanitized after each voter casts a ballot.

One of the obvious reasons why mail in has become an extremely popular method of voting in the General Election is the coronavirus connection. Despite county clerks expressing their efforts to have polling sites fully staffed with election judges and sanitized repeatedly, people are still concerned. Some voters are additionally worried that Governor J.B. Pritzker may postpone the election and close the election sites in a new emergency sparked by the pandemic. Pritzker had not tried to cancel the mid-March Republican and Democratic Primary during the early stages of the pandemic as he recognized he did not have the authority to do so. The Illinois Legislature would have had to legally give him the authority.

“The Governor and his office can certainly threaten, but there is no authority for the governor to shut down elections,” Cunningham said.

Tirio said he didn’t know whether the Governor can shut down election sites “but he almost didn’t have to in the springtime because the turnout was so bad. People can be scared enough that they won’t come. That’s kind of what we saw in the March Primary. I don’t think he’ll actually have to say, ‘You can’t go in person.’ But I do think it is possible that you can make it so unpalatable that people won’t go,” Tirio said.

However, Cunningham and Tirio have recognized what it is that voters need to see to feel comfortable at the polling sites.

“What I’m doing is making people aware that our judges will be there and fully protected with masks and shields, and gloves and sanitation to protect them. We would hope people will reciprocate and for their own safety and the safety of the voters, wear masks when they come in,” Cunningham said. So if you are still uncertain whether to go with one of the traditional routes of either voting early or on Election Day or the more popular 2020 decision of mail in…maybe the advice of Kane County Clerk Jack Cunningham will hit home enough to give you peace of mind with your choice.

“Weigh the options and do the best thing for yourself, for your health, and your ability to vote,” Cunningham advised.