Clerk's office cleared in election discrepancies  (IL)

STEVE LORD   The Beacon News   09 February 2008

GENEVA Honest human error was to blame for some Kane County ballot mistakes in Tuesday's primary election, according to county officials.

The offices of the county clerk and state's attorney said Friday, after review of a situation in which the wrong ballots were used all day in two Dundee Township and one Elgin Township precincts, that the errors were honest mistakes.

The errors all were human, not made by the computers or machinery, said County Clerk John Cunningham.

"The conclusion after consultation with the state's attorney's office was there was no criminal conspiracy; it was all human error," Cunningham said. "Thank God it only happened in three precincts. But that is still unacceptable and we've got to resolve it."

The problems in Dundee Township's 6th and 34th precincts, and Elgin's 39th Precinct, came about because election judges hit the wrong button for the ballot codes given to voters on the eSlate voting machines.

In those townships, voters were issued ballots for federal office only president, presidential delegates, senator and U.S. representative.

In the three precincts in question, there were 365 votes cast, all for federal offices only.

Cunningham said even with the federal-only ballots issued, it would not have affected any of closest races in the county.

Jay Bennett, Cunningham's chief deputy clerk, said the clerk's office will review its election judge training curriculum.

He and Cunningham also said the human element can be taken out altogether if the County Board authorizes funds for the clerk's office to buy laptop computers for each precinct that automatically will choose the ballot style.

"We will look at possibly purchasing and installing a scanning feature for the eSlate voting system that would eliminate issues related to issuing the proper ballot style," Bennett said.