Oh, for crying out loud
Friday, Oct 2, 2020 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Glitch?…
* “Glitch”…
a sudden, usually temporary malfunction or irregularity of equipment.
* This is not a glitch…
The Bloomington Election Commission said Thursday it has suspended early voting after learning of a “glitch” with its ballots.
Commission chair Denise Williams confirmed the problem was related to two Eleventh Judicial Circuit judges, Jennifer Bauknecht and Matthew Fitton. Their retention was included on ballots prepared by the McLean County Clerk’s office. But they were inadvertantly missing from Bloomington Election Commission (BEC) ballots.
Early voting began Sept. 24. That’s also when vote-by-mail ballots were mailed out. […]
“We are just brainstorming trying to figure out the best thing for the voter,” she said, adding the BEC is working with its vendors to get corrected ballots printed and hopes to get those mailed by late next week.
Late next week. Wonderful. Great job, BEC.
My own opinion is we have way too many election commissions in this state. They need to be consolidated into regional systems with experienced, full-time folks in charge. If nothing else, force cities to merge with their county clerks like Springfield did. Suburban Cook County, for example, does a pretty darned good job handling elections. Chicago does not.
- walker - Friday, Oct 2, 20 @ 10:22 am:
“”Suburban Cook County, for example, does a pretty darned good job handling elections.”"
Yes. (knock on wood)
- Rough - Friday, Oct 2, 20 @ 10:25 am:
Consolidate? In Illinois, you’re joking right?
- Shytown - Friday, Oct 2, 20 @ 10:29 am:
Yes, way too many election commissions, but Illinois is only second in the nation to California for the most local units of government. What a shocker.
- VerySmallRocks - Friday, Oct 2, 20 @ 10:31 am:
Some day, elections in this country will be run by serious professionals, not like something out of Petticoat Junction.
- Thomas Paine - Friday, Oct 2, 20 @ 10:34 am:
It’s not a terrible suggestion, except that Republicans have a history across this country and across this state of manipulating voting access and denying the right to vote to Black Americans, college students, and anyone else they think might vote Democratic.
Yes, the Chicago Board of Elections pales in comparison to Cook County Clerk’s Office.
To be fair, most of the state and most of the nation pales in comparison to the Cook County Clerk’s Office. I don’t envy the job of the Chicago Board of Elections, starting with the fact that there are five primary language besides English widely spoken in Chicago: Spanish, Polish, Arabic, Chinese, and Tagalog.
- NIU Grad - Friday, Oct 2, 20 @ 10:35 am:
As someone in Cook County, I was surprised to see Bloomington having their own system independent of the county. There should be a statewide mandate that counties automatically manage the elections, with a local option to opt out if above a certain population (100K?). The problem is funding…the local governments would have to spend their existing election money on the county system to utilize it.
- Rich Miller - Friday, Oct 2, 20 @ 10:37 am:
===I don’t envy the job of the Chicago Board of Elections===
Whatever. In other states, they call hours-long election day lines in black precincts “vote suppression.” In Chicago, it’s called “enthusiasm”
- Flyin' Elvis'-Utah Chapter - Friday, Oct 2, 20 @ 10:41 am:
Use that word “consolidate” in reference to any body of government in southern Illinois.
Then stand back and watch all the “small government” conservatives lose their mind and preach about autonomy.
- frayedcat - Friday, Oct 2, 20 @ 10:42 am:
Peoria county does a good job at managing a county wide election system. Their machines work and have paper trail. my city polling place is in walking distance of my neighborhood.
- The Ford Lawyer - Friday, Oct 2, 20 @ 11:04 am:
There is absolutely no reason for Bloomington to have a separate election commission from McLean County. Ridiculous. Wonder what Judge Fitton thinks of this fiasco.
- Curious George - Friday, Oct 2, 20 @ 11:14 am:
Other than the tax vote , are there any close contests? Not really
- Rich Miller - Friday, Oct 2, 20 @ 11:16 am:
=== are there any close contests? Not really ===
CD13. Pay attention.
- Steve Rogers - Friday, Oct 2, 20 @ 11:19 am:
Curious George: The 13th District contains part of Bloomington. That’s pretty darn close.
- Annonin' - Friday, Oct 2, 20 @ 11:41 am:
“Glitch” Is that like Trump “gaffes” like sending his lawyer to pay for dates that he does not remember or Durkie pretending his ComEd cash and crony hires are on on the square?
- Dan - Friday, Oct 2, 20 @ 11:42 am:
Bloomington voters rejected a consolidation referendum in 2018, but the question was poorly worded. Some also opposed the move because the county clerk’s office - an elected official vs. a commission - would have assumed the BEC’s duties.
- This Just In - Friday, Oct 2, 20 @ 11:44 am:
=Whatever. In other states, they call hours-long election day lines in black precincts “vote suppression.” In Chicago, it’s called “enthusiasm”=
THIS is world class . . . . .
- Socially DIstant Watcher - Friday, Oct 2, 20 @ 11:52 am:
This business with the judges left off the ballot will be resolved when someone sues and a court (another judge) creates a solution. Whether that’s another vote on the next county-wide election or what, who knows, but this is clearly not a glitch but a massive mistake on somebody’s part.
- Michelle Flaherty - Friday, Oct 2, 20 @ 11:52 am:
That’s more of a “whoopsy” than a “glitch”
- @misterjayem - Friday, Oct 2, 20 @ 12:01 pm:
“Administering ̶f̶a̶i̶r̶,̶ ̶a̶c̶c̶u̶r̶a̶t̶e̶,̶ ̶n̶o̶n̶p̶a̶r̶t̶i̶s̶a̶n̶ elections in the City of Bloomington, Illinois since being established in 1914.”
– MrJM
- The Dude Abides - Friday, Oct 2, 20 @ 12:07 pm:
So here we are in October and they discover a problem. What a joke.
- Scott Cross for President - Friday, Oct 2, 20 @ 2:07 pm:
Agree with Rich 100%.
Consolidate and professionalize.
Election technology, both hardware and software, is sophisticated and growing more so. VBM, early vote and election day operations are complicated and getting more so.
- DuPage - Friday, Oct 2, 20 @ 2:44 pm:
The DuPage County Election Commission gives new meaning to incompetence. Last time they bought a super expensive computer item to speed up results from the polling places to their main location in Wheaton. On election night it was discovered that the new device would physically not plug into the computers at the polling places. No one had bothered to test this new system before election night. The DuPage sheriff’s police had to go out and physically bring the ballot boxes back to Wheaton and the ballots had to be counted manually. “Oh well, at least no foreign government could hack anything in that election./s”