Lake County officials say new voting equipment will streamline process; ‘This ... has Democratic and Republican support’

Lake County officials say a $3 million investment in state-of-the-art equipment to accelerate processing of vote-by-mail ballots for the upcoming primary and general elections will instill more confidence in that growing method of voting.

County Clerk Anthony Vega said a process which took days to complete — from the time a vote-by-mail ballot arrives in his office until it is ready to send to the voter — can now be done in an hour, providing a one-day turnaround from receipt to mailing.

“We used to do 1,200 ballots in several days,” Vega said. “Now, it will take 60 minutes. Election results will be posted faster, too.”

“It will protect the integrity of our elections,” added Lake County Board Chair Sandy Hart.

The new voting equipment, which sorts, prints and prepares vote-by-mail ballots for the U.S. Postal Service, officially went into operation Thursday at the Lake County Clerk’s office in Waukegan, making the process quicker for voters.

Improving the integrity of the early voting system is welcome news to Lake County Republican Central Committee Chairman Keith Brin. He recently said he plans to push GOP voters to vote by mail in both the March 19 primary and Nov. 5 elections.

With some voters believing voting on Election Day is safer than taking advantage of early voting or casting ballots by mail, Brin said he hopes the state-of-the-art equipment will give people confidence all forms of voting have the same level of integrity.

“My hope is that this will give the public more confidence elections are being run fairly, and they will engage in the process.” he said at the clerk’s office Thursday. “This will improve the accuracy and accountability, and encourage more people to vote.”

Lauren Beth Gash, the Lake County Democratic chair, said the new equipment is a significant improvement. It’s an important step, she said, to “elevate the integrity” and “streamline the process,” adding more transparency.

“Voting by mail is an easy, convenient and safe way for people to vote, and voting is the cornerstone of our democracy,” she said. “This is a nonpartisan issue, and has Democratic and Republican support.”

Vega said the number of people voting by mail exploded in the 2020 general election because of the coronavirus pandemic, when 170,000 people sent their ballots to the clerk’s office by mail.

With a new law in 2022 allowing people to permanently request a vote-by-mail ballot, Vega said the process is continuing to grow, necessitating the need for the new equipment.

Along with preparing the ballots quicker, Vega said when they are returned to his office, they can be professed for counting sooner. Though they cannot be counted before Election Day, more can be tabulated then.

Vote-by-mail results posted election night might, in the past, have been those received through the preceding Thursday. Now, they will include all votes arriving through the day before Election Day.

When a vote-by-mail request is received, it goes through a sorter, where a worker in the clerk’s office programs it to make sure the ballot is accurate for the individual voter, down to the precinct level.

Once the ballot is sorted and programmed, it goes into a printer where the ballot is created, along with the envelope and the return envelope. It is sealed and packaged for delivery to the post office. Once returned, it is processed for counting on Election Day.