Governor Pritzker signed temporary legislation for the 2020 Illinois general election. That legislation has now expired. Now is the time to identify what worked and what did not in order to craft better permanent election legislation. There are municipal elections coming up for most of the state in April 2021 and any changes that can be implemented for those probably need to be passed in January 2021. Legislation for elections in 2022 and beyond is expected to be proposed, discussed, and hopefully passed before the 2021 Legislative Session concludes in May.

Indivisible Illinois has developed the following set of observations and recommendations based on our work and feedback regarding VirusFreeVotingIllinois.org as well as conversations with poll workers, County Clerks, the Illinois State Board of Elections, and State Senator Julie Morrison.

TL;DR Recommendations

• Implement for April: Allow jurisdictions to continue to use dropboxes.
• Implement for 2022: Allow jurisdictions to opt into sending absentee ballots to every registered voter / every voter in the last 3-4 elections. This will greatly simplify the process for voters and reduce work for election authorities. Having address changes made at the DMV/USPS automatically update voter registration will make this far more possible.
• Implement for 2022: Allow registered Illinois voters to request permanent absentee ballot status so they will automatically receive an absentee ballot in the language of their choice in all future elections. (as long as they vote in at least one of the last 3-4 elections?)

Voter Registration, Absentee Ballot Application and Status

Observations

• Some jurisdictions made this really easy, some made it more difficult than necessary. Even a poor online ballot application process was far better than no online ballot application process.
• Some jurisdictions provided online status and/or email confirmation when a ballot changed state. Chicago did this really well. In Suburban Cook we heard reports of people not receiving the emails but they were able to get the status online…eventually.
• Some jurisdictions sent absentee ballot applications to all registered voters and some only sent applications to voters in the last 3 elections. This led to a small amount of confusion but overall worked well.
• The additional field on the printed voter registration forms to request a mail in ballot was great and eliminated confusion for those who used that process. In the future, it would be nice to see this option universally applied to online registration forms as well.
• In jurisdictions that did not provide online ballot applications, the ballot application form provided on the ISBE site and the one provided on the election authority site often differed.
• In a number of cases, the election authority did not provide any absentee ballot forms or made them extremely difficult to find on their site.
• Many voters were intimidated by the required agreements on the ISBE site just to find the absentee ballot application for their jurisdiction. It was unclear what they were agreeing to or why agreement was required. It felt like a subtle form of voter suppression/intimidation.
• Some voters (elderly and infrequent) got confused by the ballot application vs the absentee ballot. We heard multiple times that people had already “completed their ballot” when they really meant that they had completed their ballot application.
• Suburban Cook County had delays in sending out and processing returned absentee ballots. Many voters got concerned when their friends in neighboring jurisdictions started voting and they had yet to receive their ballots. This resulted in a lot of people who requested absentee ballots voting early (i.e., provisionally) prior to receiving their absentee ballot and creating more work for poll workers, election officials, etc. Voters in these counties also got rather concerned when it took nearly a week to get a confirmation that their ballot had been received/processed. In both cases, this was notable primarily in being the exception within the state. Hopefully, Cook County will improve their response times for the next election.
• Some Lake County voters were confused by the addition of a security envelope and instructions that referenced signing by a red X even though the envelope was printed in black and white. Few, if any, other jurisdictions required security envelopes. Lake County may also have experienced delays processing returned envelopes similar to Suburban Cook County.
• Suburban Cook and Lake Counties were the only counties where more than 10% of registered voters had unreturned absentee ballots as of election day. This was likely a result of the processing problems mentioned above, but as a consequence it was entirely unsurprising that these jurisdictions had most of the races that took days to call or appeared to flip from the leader on election night to a different winner days later.
• The Secretary of State sent out a letter to many voters who had requested absentee ballots incorrectly stating that they had not submitted their absentee ballot application. This created a ton of confusion.

Recommendations

• To Be Corrected: Identify and eliminate whatever problems caused the processing delays in Suburban Cook and Lake Counties.
• To Be Corrected: Any future absentee ballot reminder letters need to include information for voters on how to confirm the status of their ballots: website link (statewide or jurisdiction specific), phone number, etc.
• Possible for April (may already exist?): Provide an absentee ballot registration option (checkbox) on all voter registration forms (printed and online) to eliminate the need to complete multiple forms.
• Update ISBE Website: Remove unnecessary acceptance buttons for users trying to find the absentee ballot application for their jurisdiction.
• Update ISBE Website: Provide a single landing page/starting point for all residents who want to register, confirm their registration, request an absentee ballot, or check their ballot status.
• Implement for 2022: Allow jurisdictions to opt into sending absentee ballots to every registered voter / every voter in the last 3-4 elections. This will greatly simplify the process for voters and reduce work for election authorities. Having address changes made at the DMV/USPS automatically update voter registration will make this far more possible.
• Implement for 2022: Allow registered Illinois voters to request permanent absentee ballot status so they will automatically receive an absentee ballot in the language of their choice in all future elections. (as long as they vote in at least one of the last 3-4 elections?)
• Wish List: Allow all registered Illinois voters to request absentee ballots online.
• Wish List: Send ballot status updates via email to every Illinois voter where email is available.
• Wish List: Allow all registered Illinois voters to check their ballot status online.
• Wish List: Have a prepaid universal/standard ballot envelope format statewide. This will simplify tracking and processing by USPS and election authorities as well as voter education. 

Poll Workers/Techs

Observations

• Many jurisdictions were concerned about poll workers early on yet received far more poll worker requests than they had available positions. This was great to see.
• The push to get high school students signed up to be poll workers was great. This is a wonderful way to build/ensure trust in our electoral process with young people.
• Experienced poll workers and first time high school poll workers greatly enjoyed the experience working together.
• High schoolers were thrilled because they were paid, received extra credit, and logged service hours.
• At some early voting sites, poll workers had to turn away late arriving voters on the last day of early voting in order to get everything closed up at a reasonable hour that night and be ready for election day.
• Technical problems with voting machines were not always addressed in a timely or effective fashion. In some cases, poll workers called in to say machines were down and all the tech did was show up to confirm that without offering any solution. In some cases, it appeared long time techs did not have up to date knowledge on current machines. In one specific instance, 2 precincts were located in the same building, but one had long lines and the other had no line because of problematic machines, yet it was either not possible or no one thought to take a machine from the precinct with no lines to the one with long lines.

Recommendations

• To Be Corrected: Ensure poll techs are up to date on current technology being used and have sufficient spare equipment to resolve problems.
• Implement for 2022: Keep the state holiday and the 16 year minimum age for poll workers, so high school students can get the day off to be poll workers.
• Suggestion for 2022: Consider ending the last day of early voting at 5pm instead of 7pm, so poll workers have plenty of time to wrap up early voting and prepare for election day.

Dropboxes/Early Voting

Observations

• The dropboxes worked very smoothly and were an efficient and expedient way to submit absentee ballots.
• There were questions about whether ballots could be returned in a dropbox for any jurisdiction or if it had to be a dropbox for that jurisdiction. Overall, voters tended to err on the side of caution, but clarity on this point would be helpful.
• Some jurisdictions promised to have people manning the dropboxes and checking ballots before they were submitted. That sporadically happened and in the places where they did it, they reported correcting a lot of potentially problematic ballots (missing signatures, unsealed envelopes, etc).

Recommendations

• Implement for April: Allow jurisdictions to continue to use dropboxes.
• Update ISBE Website: Provide a page where residents can select their jurisdiction and then see all the ways to vote in that jurisdiction: early voting sites/dates, dropbox sites/dates, and election day locations. Right now these are all on separate pages which makes it hard for voters to see all their options.
• Implement for 2022: There should be more dropboxes available earlier in the cycle. It would be great to have permanent outside (24×7) dropboxes in future elections so voters can have confidence knowing where to drop off their ballots.
• Wish List: Allow voters to return their absentee ballot via any dropbox within the state.
• Wish List: Register permanent dropbox locations on Google/Apple Maps so users can readily find the closest dropbox.
• Wish List: Provide ballot on demand option to give voters the capability to vote on hand-marked paper ballots in jurisdictions that currently only allow machine voting during early voting.

Messaging

• Suggestion: Illinois can do a far better job messaging that all ballots received/processed prior to election day will be counted and reported on election night. Many people were confused by the national messaging and lack of clear in state messaging on this point. A lot of people who originally intended to vote absentee ultimately chose to exchange their absentee ballots for in person ballots out of concern that the absentee ballots might not be counted. In a number of cases, this resulted in provisional ballots, which only makes more work and delays results. Clearer messaging can really make a difference here.

Future Considerations

Risk Limiting Audits

Background

• Audits in Illinois are conducted primarily by machine tabulation. Before results are certified, officials randomly  sample and audit 5% of the precincts in their jurisdictions as well as 5% of the machines used in early voting.
• Absentee Ballots in Illinois are not currently audited.
• Provided is research pertaining to the need for improved audits:
  • Verified Voting: There are currently no election day audits in place to determine if votes cast match the outcomes. Improvement of post-election audits are needed.
  • Cook County Clerk’s Office White Paper: States with great audits that (detect) and paper ballots that (recover) are much more resilient. Investigate audit styles that bring the highest level of confidence: Risk Limiting Audits.
• Conducting rigorous audits enhances confidence in the correctness of election outcomes.
• Per the National Conference of State Legislatures, three states have a statutory requirement for a Risk Limiting Audit: Colorado, Rhode Island, and Virginia. 
• Ohio and Washington provide options for counties to run different types of audits, one of which being a Risk Limiting Audit.
• Beginning in 2020 California counties may conduct a Risk Limiting Audit in lieu of a traditional post-election audit.

Recommendations

• We would like to see Illinois’ auditing processes enhanced.
• Illinois needs Risk Limiting Audits, an easy, economic and efficient method for verifying that vote tallies are accurate by hand-counting a statistically meaningful sample of the votes cast
• A pilot could be the first step. Lake County which uses all hand-marked paper ballots for early and election day voting would be an excellent county to initiate it. Note that other states could serve as models.
• We recommend implementing risk limiting audits for absentee ballots to ensure their integrity in future elections under the assumption that more and more people will choose to vote absentee from now on.

Ranked Choice Voting

• What we saw play out in the Presidential primary process earlier this year (before COVID-19) made a strong case for using ranked choice voting in that race, so that early and absentee voters can cast their vote with confidence that it will be counted even if their favorite candidate drops out the weekend before election day. It will also allow votes to move from non-viable candidates to their next choice.
• Allowing ranked choice voting for key municipal races (i.e., Chicago Mayor) would save a lot of time and cost by avoiding the potential need for a runoff election.