Mail snafus, misinformation concern Central Illinois election authorities (2024)

BLOOMINGTON— While voicing high confidence in the integrity of elections overseen by their offices, Central Illinois officials' concerns about the upcoming presidential election include the spread of misinformation and the U.S. Postal Service's ability to deliver mail-in ballots on time.

In both issues, they are not alone. Last month, state election directors from across the country told a top postal service official that they were worried that too many ballots wouldn't be delivered in time for the November election. They based their fears on past problems and a disruptive consolidation of postal facilities across the country that Postmaster General Louis DeJoy has put on hold until after the elections.

"My problem is not with vote-by-mail," saidAckermansaid during a news conference last week, "but my problem is with recent changes from the United States Postal Service that we've already seen in the primary has impacted the delivery of some ballots."

The missing ballots represented a fraction of the nearly 2,500 mail-in ballots received by Tazewell County during the primary election, and an even smaller portion of the 13,664 votes cast.

But in some races, even a handful of votes could make a difference. For instance, the results of one county board race saw a 9-vote difference between the winner and the person's closest opponent.

Although these lost ballots did not affect the results of that race in District 3, Ackerman said, one voter not being able to have their voice heard is one too many.

"In the primary, when we had such a (comparatively) lower turnout, if we're already seeing a high volume of error, I'm afraid about how that will be amplified as we go into a larger election where we're going to have a much higher turnout," Ackerman said.

Responding to The Pantagraph's inquiry about these concerns, a U.S. Postal Service representative provided a statement expressing a commitment to the secure, timely delivery of election mail.

As part of this, it said, the postal service has been performing daily "all clears" nationwide since January to ensure election mail does not remain in USPS facilities overnight.

"In 2024, just as we have in previous elections, we will deploy longstanding processes and procedures, as well as allocating additional resources, including, but not limited to, expanded processing procedures, extra transportation, extra delivery and collection trips, and overtime, to ensure that Election Mail reaches its intended destination in a timely manner," the statement read.

Matt Dietrich, public information officer for the Illinois State Board of Elections, told The Pantagraph that the board does not collect data on lost vote-by-mail ballots. However, the election operations division has heard from Ackerman about issues in Tazewell County.

"What we have heard are concerns, especially from jurisdictions in southern Illinois, about delays in the mail for sending and returning of ballots," Dietrich said.

Ackerman said he hopes congressional leadership will pay attention to these mailing issues and urge the U.S. Postal Service to ensure ballots are safely submitted.

Congress has already started to voice its concerns. In June, 19 senators wrote to DeJoy asking the postmaster general about the service’s policies and plans to prepare for the 2024 election cycle. They pointed out how the first regional consolidation, in Virginia last year, led to delivery delays that led some local election officials there to direct residents to bypass the mail and place their primary election ballots in designated drop boxes. Other consolidations have been blamed for degraded service in Oregon, Virginia, Texas and Missouri.

DeJoy paused the cost-cutting consolidations until January 2025 in the wake of bipartisan criticism, but lawmakers want a commitment that the resumption won’t lead to further delivery delays.

Ballot tracking services now in use

To ensure mail-in ballots are received on time for an election, McLean County Clerk Kathy Michael recently announced a partnership with KNOWiNK, a Missouri-based software company that will be responsible for printing and mailing vote-by-mail ballots for future elections.

Ballots will have a tear-off slip at the bottom with a QR code and web address so voters can track their ballot and make sure it is received by the county clerk's office.

Michael said that if a voter finds that the ballot still hasn't been received, they can call the county clerk's office, verify their identity and another ballot will be mailed to them.

Michael added the system will enter the first ballot that's received. If the second ballot eventually comes through, it won't be counted since the system will have already recorded the initial vote.

"We will have a special file for these (ballots) with notes as back-up," Michael said.

The Peoria County Election Commission, meanwhile, partners with BallotTrax, a Denver-based software company, that offers a service where voters can sign up to receive texts or emails about their ballot's status in the mailing system.

Something doesn't seem right? 'Call us and ask'

Misinformation being spread on social media other avenues was also a concern amongst attendees of the press conference.

Elizabeth Gannon, executive director of the Peoria County Election Commission, said one of her election judges recently received a text message that they weren't signed up for vote-by-mail and was referred to a spoof website.

"If you see something that doesn't seem right, call us and ask us," Gannon said. "Don't just assume or spread that information."

Ackerman said there's been a larger social media campaign stating that election judges marking a ballot indicates that it's a way to track which votes to throw away, which was disputed by the Illinois Board of Elections.

He added that the state of Illinois requires ballots to be initialized for authorization. If a voter refuses, their vote could be disqualified if the election office was subject to an audit.

"Trust is a two-way street so if we want the citizenship to believe that we are doing honest, accurate elections, they have to trust (and) we have to trust them that if they're coming in on Election Day to do same-day registration that they are able to do that," said Luke Stremlau, executive director of the Bloomington Election Commission.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.