New state election law delays, confuses

The mix up in Fairview Heights on election night in which the initial news reports on the winner of the mayor's race gave the victory to challenger Vic Canty over incumbent Gail Mitchell, stemmed from overlooking the new Illinois election law.  This law, which went into effect in July, mandates that absentee and early voting ballots not be counted until after the polls closed.  The only results available on election night, at least early enough in the evening for newspaper/media deadlines, were those coming from voters who voted in person on Tuesday in their precincts. 

St. Clair County chose to report the in person votes separate from the absentee and early voting which gave the impression that the election results were complete.  This confused some when they read reports from the county which said, 29 of 29 precincts reporting, 100 percent.  Give or take some precincts.  Madison County, on the other hand, did not report results until those ballots were included. 

Every election Madison County's clerk, Mark Von Nida, seems more and more clairvoyant, seemingly able to anticipate problems and address them before the election.  In past elections, standard practice was to deliver absentee ballots to the correct precinct sometime during election day.  They were then opened after the polls closed, recorded, initialed, and put into the ballot box by local judges.  They were then counted with all the ballots from the entire day.  Now, it is left to judges at the county centers to count after 7:00.  It appears as though St. Clair did not begin counting the absentees until after 8 p.m while Madison must have had judges begin at or around 7 so that results could be reported in a more timely manner.

It is only when elections are very close that issues pop up, remember 2000?  Back then Madison County was again on the cutting edge, having eliminated the punch card ballot for that election.  But, most news reporters and bloggers, will not soon forget this newest law in future election results reporting.

Oh, and yes, challenger Vic Canty in Fairview Heights, will be asking for a recount.

Comments

[Rand]

Any idea why Illinois passed such a law. Here most the absentee votes are tabulated and those numbers released within minutes of the polls closing. Then comes the big wait - as long as two hours before any other votes are counted. Then it can be days before the other absentee votes and provisional votes are counted. Other absentee? Those are the absentee ballots delivered election day, either by mail or by hand. As an absentee voter, I can deliver my ballot to any polling place, not just mine, and it will be accepted and set aside. Provisional? Special case ballots - for instance once I didn't get my absentee ballot in the mail so I went to my polling place. I was allowed to vote, but my ballot was put in an envelope and sealed, pending research by the registrar's office to see if my first absentee ballot had been returned.

And y'all can file this under "TOO MUCH INFORMATION"! Sorry

[diane]

I'm guessing Illinois put that law into effect when early voting became available. There would be too many ballots, especially in federal elections to dump on judges in individual precincts.

[Cal Skinner]

In McHenry County, results in the Huntley School Board race were posting. All precincts in.

Then, later in the night the numbers changed.

Seems to me that the posting should have columns listing how many votes in person, absentee and early and, then, the total so far.

Of course, there are the late absentees that have not arrived by election day.

Really strange when the results change without an explanation.