Will Illinois switch to all vote-by-mail in November? It could cost counties millions
They don’t have enough money and the clock is winding down, but local election officials are preparing for three times as many voters to cast ballots by mail in November.
The threat of coronavirus could compel unprecedented numbers of Illinoisans to vote from home rather than risk a trip to the polls on November 3, said St. Clair County Clerk Thomas Holbrook.
“Anyone with an ounce of sense knows it makes more sense to vote by mail,” Holbrook said. “But the presidential general election is going to be overwhelming and it’s going to stretch our budget and capacity to the limit.”
With already strapped budgets, clerks worry about the price tag: each packet costs at least a dollar to print, not to mention postage and labor to process applications, said Vicky Albers, Clinton County clerk.
“That’s over a dollar apiece that you don’t have in your budget,” Albers said.
In 2016, St. Clair County saw a 66% voter turnout, and 11,400 people applied to vote by mail. That number could double or triple this year as voters decide to avoid the polls, Holbrook said.
Statewide in 2016, just 6.5% of voters cast their ballots by mail, according to the Illinois State Board of Elections. That number is almost certain to increase this year.
When they return to Springfield this week for a special session, state lawmakers are expected to determine the fate of vote-by-mail for November.
Gov. J.B. Pritzker has called on them to pass legislation that “makes it easier for people to vote by mail.”
Lawmakers could pass legislation that requires county clerks to transition to all vote-by-mail. One northern Illinois lawmaker, Democratic state Sen. Julie Morrison of Lake Forest, plans to introduce a bill that would require the state to send a ballot to every registered voter.
This approach would ensure voter accessibility and safety, but it comes at a price.
Holbrook estimates his office will spend at least $1 million more on mail-in ballots this year. If the legislature requires his office to send ballots to all voters, “it’s going to cost even more,” he said.
Transitioning to all vote-by-mail could save money in the long run, Holbrook said, mainly by eliminating the cost of running polling places.
But Debbie Ming-Mendoza, Madison County clerk, said she doesn’t expect lawmakers will force a 100% vote-by-mail election this year because of the cost and logistics.
“I am smart enough to see down the road that’s where the General Assembly will want to go,” Ming-Mendoza said.
What the legislature can do, she added, is give election officials more time. The first day voters can apply to cast a mail ballot is August 5. Office staffers can’t start processing ballots more than 15 days prior to the election.
“We need more time than that or we’ll never get results,” Ming-Mendoza said.
Ming-Mendoza said her office expects half of its voters to use the mail. Though the county board cut $90,000 from the clerk’s budget for fiscal year 2020, Ming-Mendoza says they will have to accommodate voters no matter how they choose to cast their ballots.
“I won’t turn somebody away by saying, ‘No, I can’t afford to send you a ballot,’” Ming-Mendoza said.
Illinois election security
Critics of all vote-by-mail elections say the practice leads to fraud and favors the Democratic electorate. President Donald Trump has attacked voting by mail, tweeting that it “doesn’t work out well for Republicans.”
But researchers have found only rare instances of fraud, and GOP leaders in Iowa, Ohio and West Virginia have embraced it, the Associated Press reported.
In one Stanford University study, researchers analyzed data from 1996-2018 in three states with universal vote-by-mail: California, Utah and Washington. They reported that vote-by-mail does not affect election results, though it resulted in a modest uptick in voter participation.
Some Republicans, including Republican U.S. Rep. Rodney Davis of Taylorville, have said “ballot harvesting” is a threat to voter integrity in all vote-by-mail elections.
The practice gained attention after the 2018 midterm elections in North Carolina, where a political operative collected absentee ballots from voters then forged signatures, filled in votes and mailed in the ballots.
Davis introduced three bills that would prevent ballot harvesting.
Holbrook, a Democrat, said some national GOP lawmakers are trying to make voting by mail into “a partisan issue,” though he said state Republicans understand “vote by mail is by far the safest and best way of doing this.”
Even if Illinois decides against an all vote-by-mail election, the demand for alternatives to a polling place will slam local election offices.
“Regardless of what the legislature does, this is going to stretch our staff, equipment and our limits to the breaking point,” Holbrook said.
This story was originally published May 20, 2020 at 5:00 AM.
