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Clerks worry about Illinois law aimed at 'undervoting'

David Mercer, The Associated Press

CHAMPAIGN — Some Illinois voters could get a surprise in Tuesday's primary: a rejected ballot.

Under a 2007 state election law being enforced for the first time, voting machines will reject ballots if someone fails to vote in one or more races for statewide office. Voters must then explain to an election judge whether they meant to leave part of their ballot blank before it's approved.

The law has led some county clerks — who run elections — to predict delays and has raised concerns that the system violates the right to a secret vote. At least one official — McHenry County Clerk Katherine Schultz — said she won't follow the law.

The law is aimed at so-called "undervoting" for the six top state offices, from governor to comptroller, in areas where paper ballots are used, alerting voters who might not realize they had missed some races. 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.

Many county clerks say the system is a bad idea.

If someone votes in Tuesday's Democratic primary, for example, and the machine doesn't beep, "then everyone in the polling place knows you voted for (Attorney General) Lisa Madigan," because she had no opposition, said Champaign County Clerk Mark Sheldon.

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.

Illinois is the only state that requires undervote alerts. New York passed a similar law, but that state's Board of Elections rescinded it last summer, saying it "would create serious violations of a voter's constitutional and statutory right to privacy" and could cause delays at the polls.

Schultz said her most immediate concern — and one of the reasons McHenry County won't follow the law — is the possibility of delays, which she says are more likely in the 63 counties that use AccuVote voting machines. Those machines, she said, are scanning ballots much more slowly because they're scanning every race rather than just the six offices affected by the law.

Board of Elections Director White said based on testing conducted by the board before its November decision, he doubts delays will be long.

"If there are a number of voters who are waiting in line, there could be some delay," he said. "And there could be some possibility for confusion, but I think that's at a minimum."

But Schultz noted that many voters choose not to vote in obscure races that they know little about, so that could mean lots of undervoting on Tuesday.

"If just about every voter that walks into the precinct to vote has their ballot rejected and the judge has to explain to the voter what's happening, and then the voter has to watch this scrolling (display) to see which office he undervoted, yeah, it could cause huge delays," she said.

It isn't clear just what McHenry County's decision to ignore the law means, University of Illinois adjunct law professor Deanna Mool said, but it's possible it could create questions about the outcome of tight races.

"Those questions become really important if there's a recount," she said.