By: Cook County Auditor-Treasurer Braidy Powers - Cook County Public Offices - August 19, 2022

The first half of the 2022 election season came to an end with the state primary held on August 9. Turnout was a little lower than usual for a primary election. Statewide, the turnout of eligible voters was 18%. In Cook County the turnout of eligible voters was 36%. Our turnout of registered voters was a little over 40%.  In the past 32 years the turnout of registered voters at our primary elections has ranged from 29% to 64%, with about half falling in the 40% to 55% range. Local races are the main driver of primary election turnout and there were no local races on this year’s primary ballot. Sometimes state level races can drive turnout too, as when local resident Bill Hansen ran for the state house seat in 2002, 2004 and 2015. The turnout tends to be lowest when judicial offices are the only races on the ballot.

There was some excitement on election night when reports came in that internet service would be affected by a planned outage and would delay our reporting of results to the Secretary of State’s office (we manually enter the results from the counting machine results tapes to the State’s Election Reporting site). It turned out that we were not affected by the outage. If we had been, Arrowhead Electric would have notified us in advance.  

Other than that, it was a normal election night, and most things went as planned.  There are always a few exceptions because elections are a very hands-on process and involve a lot of people. We needed fifty-two election judges, along with auditor’s office staff, to manage this primary election. Each of them was integral to the process, helping to ensure that the election was secure and accurate.  We held two live training sessions for election judges in July and we had great turnout for those sessions that left us with more qualified judges than we could use for the primary. We’ll need all of them for the general election. Thirty of the judges staffed our two polling places, one at the courthouse and one at the community center, where city residents voted in-person on election day from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Each polling place is staffed by a head judge, an assistant head judge, and a team of judges to handle the steps of the voting process, including registration of new voters, the roster signatures, ballot receipts and blank ballots for voting, overseeing the counting equipment, answering questions, and managing the general flow of voters. When voting ends at 8:00 p.m. they run multiple tapes of election results and sign those tapes.  They prepare a Precinct Summary Statement, secure the equipment, seal the voted ballots, organize all materials, and proceed to the auditor’s office for final review.

Twenty-two of the judges managed the process for the twelve mail ballot precincts in Cook County. Most mail ballots have been received in the auditor’s office by election day but registering and voting in mail ballot precincts can continue until 8 p.m. on election evening. The auditor’s office prepares spaces within the courthouse for mail ballot judges who work in teams of two or three to process the ballots. The mail ballot judges arrive at 6 p.m. to receive final instructions before beginning the election processing. Mail ballot judges have a separate and very specific set of instructions they follow in processing mail ballots.  They are provided with supplies, a precinct roster, oath and incident report forms, administrative envelopes, voted mail ballots returned by the voters, precinct finders and much more. Everything that is given to them must be accounted for and returned to the auditor’s office at the end of the night. Each precinct team is given a receipt for the ballots supplied to them and everything must balance to that number. They are responsible to count the signature envelopes containing the ballots, the secrecy envelopes the ballots are sealed in, and the ballots themselves once they are separated from the envelopes. Those three numbers must match before they can proceed to the counting machines. The results tape from the counting machine must also match their hand count. All that information is then summarized in a Precinct Summary Statement. They seal the voted ballots, organize all materials, and proceed to the auditor’s office for final review.  It is a detailed process that takes time and can slow our results reporting compared to counties without mail ballot precincts, but it ensures that we account for all ballots and materials and leads to confidence in the accuracy of our results.

On the second or third day after a primary election the cook county canvass board meets to review the results. The canvass board includes the district court administrator, mayor of the largest city, two county commissioners and the county auditor. If the board is satisfied with the process and the accuracy, they certify the results by signing the abstract of election. This is the final step for a primary election, unless there are recounts or if results are contested in court. 

After each election we take one extra step by asking our election judges and auditor’s staff for their perspective and input on what went well, what could have been better, and suggestions to make their role easier/more efficient. From these comments we compile a list of improvements for the next election – which is right around the corner. 

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