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Undervoting and a big campaign roundup

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Illinois

* The uproar over the new “undervote” law was partially justified, particularly in areas that didn’t have electronic notification…

In many counties, the machines will not only reject the ballots, they’ll beep.

Voters then must take the ballot to an election judge, who will ask the voters if they intentionally left part of the ballot blank. If not, they’ll be allowed to vote in those races. If so, the ballot will be approved. […]

Even in counties where machines don’t beep, voters with rejected ballots will have to approach an election judge, show their ballot and ask for help, said Schultz.

State Board of Elections Director Daniel White said election judges are required to protect the integrity and the secrecy of the voting process and doubts there will be serious problems.

“There’s no reason for them to be staring at the ballots,” White said.

They shouldn’t even be looking at ballots, let alone starting at them.

But, despite the Rockford Register Star’s paranoia, there is a good reason for the law…

We’re supposed to have a secret ballot, but when we decided not to vote in a particular race it was no secret to those assembled at our polling places. Election judges were required to ask if we really wanted to leave a race blank. They had enough to do without that extra chore.

People accidentally skip races. The way my paper ballot was laid out yesterday, that would’ve been easy to do.

I first encountered this undervote warning several years ago in Chicago. The card reader wouldn’t accept my ballot and it caused some consternation with the polling judges.

I always undervote. I never vote for unopposed candidates, for instance, and I often skip over judicial retentions. I undervoted yesterday in Springfield and a little light went off alerting me, and all I had to do was push that button and I was done. No biggie. So, it’s probably not a huge deal for many of us…

A first-time law aimed at catching ballot errors took effect with Tuesday’s election. It calls for voters to be notified of an “undervote,” that is, if they did not vote in races for statewide constitutional office. If they choose, they can go back and vote in that race. Most did not.

“No. There’s no complaints,” said election judge Mike Chiras after handling Tazewell County voters like Long at the Methodist church. “They know what they want to do.”

“No. There’s been no problem with that,” agreed Harold Dikeman, who was serving as an election judge for Knox County in Yates City. “I know everybody was worried about that.”

Concerns were raised that the 2007 law might create more confusion, not to mention more expense to upgrade voting machines. A couple of state legislators hope to overturn it, and even some sponsors have called for more review.

However, this would not be a good thing, if true. From Illinois Review…

One frustrated voter from Aurora spoke to IR today, telling the story of purposefully under-voting because they didn’t know enough about certain candidates and offices. By the time their ballot was submitted, several poll workers had reviewed it - one even asking them why they weren’t filling it all out and pointing to the specific offices this person had purposefully not voted in!

That voter should’ve called the authorities. I hope IR suggested it. I would’ve.

Do you deliberately undervote?

* Here’s your campaign roundup…

* Todd Stroger Talks Race Relations in Concession Speech

* Keats Says He Shouldn’t Be Written Off

* Keats Gets GOP Nod For Cook County Board President

* Berrios Wins Cook County Assessor Primary

* Cronin sails to victory in DuPage chairman race

* Cronin wins DuPage Co. Board chair race

* Dold, Seals declare victory on North Shore while Hastert’s son loses congressional bid

* Hultgreen defeats Hastert in 14th race

* Hultgren defeats Hastert in 14th Congresional Dist. race

* Kinzinger wins in the 11th, will take on Halvorson

* Seals holds slender lead over Hamos in 10th race

* Dold, Seals will face off in 10th District

* Coulson loses to Dold in 10th Congressional; Hamos trails Seals

* Walsh to face Bean in 8th District

* Hirner leading in 18th Congressional race

* Shimkus wins GOP primary in 19th Congressional District

* Newman leading in 12th Congressional District

* Burke barely holding off Lozano

* Burke in tight legislative race in Chicago

* Bassi loses to Morrison in 54th House District GOP primary

* Higgins defeats Forte-Scott in 56th House GOP race

* Sente tops Hartstein in House District 59

* Winters, Wilson win 68th District races

* Voters say no to New Trier referendum

* Carol Stream voters backing rec center plan

* Clark County voters approve half-cent sales tax to finance new courthouse

* Stark County voters OK safety sales tax

* Property tax hike OK’d for new Brimfield high school

* Wind farms: Voters seek slowdown on permits

* Officials: Ill. voter turnout lower than past

* Primary voter turnout ‘extremely disappointing’

* Voter turnout disappointing

* Election 2010: Boone’s 19.95 percent turnout is best in area

* Election judge booted from precinct for bad behavior

* How much does a campaign cost?

* Primary’s over; time to move it to a reasonable date

posted by Rich Miller
Wednesday, Feb 3, 10 @ 2:16 pm

Comments

I personally never vote when it’s uncontested. And I’ve undervoted in other situations (i.e. school board or county board) when there are not enough candidates I am willing to actually support.

Comment by YNM Wednesday, Feb 3, 10 @ 2:19 pm
I am the Queen of the Undervote.

which is why yesterday I was angry to hear the judge reading out the offices for which a person had undervotes.

and I told her as I approached for my tally that I did not want her to put my business out for all to hear, and besides, she would be reading for several minutes if she did that.

and so she tallied in silence.

Comment by Amalia Wednesday, Feb 3, 10 @ 2:21 pm
I enjoy my right to abstain.

Comment by George Wednesday, Feb 3, 10 @ 2:22 pm
Almost always undervote.

I lost count of how many times I had to explain this process to people yesterday and how many times the Election Commission had to be called. Election judges were most certainly looking at and even scrutinizing the ballots of voters out here.

Comment by Obamarama Wednesday, Feb 3, 10 @ 2:23 pm
I always undervote and never have had a problem.

Comment by wordslinger Wednesday, Feb 3, 10 @ 2:26 pm
Undervoting: All need be done is to provide a choice to blacken in to indicate “no vote in this race”.

Comment by borzoi Wednesday, Feb 3, 10 @ 2:30 pm
I almost always undervote; no worries, either.

Comment by Arthur Andersen Wednesday, Feb 3, 10 @ 2:31 pm
I usually undervote unopposed offices. Judges, too. It went unnoticed in my Sub-Cook precinct.

Comment by JonShibleyFan Wednesday, Feb 3, 10 @ 2:33 pm
My machine in Chicago, when I voted early on January 27, just told me that I’d undervoted and then wanted to know if I understood and had done it intentionally. After I told it I didn’t want to cast any more votes it went ahead and recorded my ballot. So that’s electronic notification, right? Sensible and civilized.

And yes, I don’t vote when there’s no contest unless I want to express particular support for that candidate. If she or he’s been doing a good job, it’s a way for me to say so.

Comment by been there Wednesday, Feb 3, 10 @ 2:33 pm
The new law is ridiculous. Anyone in a precinct for longer than ten minutes yesterday could see how crazy the law’s application was making things. Some enterprising reporter should get the County Clerks’ opinions on the matter.

Comment by Madison County Watcher Wednesday, Feb 3, 10 @ 2:34 pm
I usually undervote — I don’t want to vote in a race I know next to nothing about, and sometimes I don’t want to vote for the lone person running.

This law encourages people to vote randomly and just fill the durn thing out rather than have to interract with the election judge.

Comment by lake county democrat Wednesday, Feb 3, 10 @ 2:46 pm
I often undervote. But I live in an area where the cleck (to her everlastign credit) told the workers NOT to notify people in undervotes.

Does anyone REALLY think that someone in verious wards of Chicago might feel real warm and fuzzy with people knowing which races you undervoted? That you even undervoted at all?

I think there is no way this hold up in the 7th Circuit if and when someone files a lawsuit.

Comment by Pat collins Wednesday, Feb 3, 10 @ 2:46 pm
My wife undervoted, because of a fraud. We live in Northfield Township, and she said that, on her ballot (GOP), the governor section only had two candidates, Dillard and McKenna. She wanted to vote for Andrzejewski, so she skipped that section.

One reason that the turnout was low is that many voters don’t want to declare a party. Our legislature should change the primary and allow us to have a wide-open primary, similar to California and Washington, which have candidates, of all parties, on the primary ballot.

Comment by Conservative Veteran Wednesday, Feb 3, 10 @ 3:27 pm
Generally undervote. And Borzoi has it right: add a choice for “None of the above.” That choice may win some elections.

Comment by Excessively Rabid Wednesday, Feb 3, 10 @ 3:51 pm
Because I don’t consider myself a Dem. or Rep. and there are races in the general election I know I will be voting for the opposite party, I usually find myself undervoting.

Comment by Frank Wednesday, Feb 3, 10 @ 3:56 pm
I undervote all the time. Did it yesterday in DuPage, but no beep or return of paper ballot. I really wish we had “None of the Above” as a choice instead of the sensible option of “No vote in this race.”

Comment by Long-Time Lurker Wednesday, Feb 3, 10 @ 4:11 pm
can’t think of an election where i didn’t “undervote.” i vote in the races i care about and for people i know…

Comment by bored now Wednesday, Feb 3, 10 @ 4:45 pm
==Borzoi has it right: add a choice for “None of the above.” That choice may win some elections.==

That’s probably why they don’t allow it.
Using the touch screen yesterday was no problem. It tells you that you selected no candidate in some races but you just OK that and submit the ballot. No one was alerted.
Those stories from other areas bother me though. I’m sure that the vast majority of folks who undervote intend to do so. Involving the election judges seems like an unnecessary and possibly intimidating intrusion. Why does Illinois have to lead the nation in this nanny-statism?
I can think of some possible consequences if people think that they’re suppposed to vote in every race, which is the impression that many voters may have. First of all, it may discourage people from voting at all. It may also help marginal judges to keep their jobs, as people vote to retain all the judges (not that competence usually plays a role in those results). Or it may cause people to just vote for names that they like — hardly a desirable situation.
The sooner this law is overturned the better, I’d say.

Comment by Rambler Wednesday, Feb 3, 10 @ 4:57 pm
Undervoted for some the local candidates I never heard of and had no idea what they actually do.

Comment by zatoichi Wednesday, Feb 3, 10 @ 5:01 pm
The only time we told the voter which offices the scanner identified as undervoted was when the voter asked. Otherwise we just said “the beep is because you undervoted - did you mean to skip some sections?” 95% of the time they said Yes.

An investment tip: buy stock in the paper roll company. Every precinct is going to go thru loads of it.

Comment by Redbright - election judge Wednesday, Feb 3, 10 @ 8:06 pm