Already Voted? Your Ballot Ready to be Counted

By Kay Shipman of FarmWeek

If you were one of 1.34 million Illinoisans whose vote-by-mail ballot was received by Wednesday, you’re set.

Voted early? You’re good too.

Local election authorities across the state will be ready to tabulate all those processed ballots when the polls close Nov. 3. “At 7 o’clock, boom! They’ll upload all the ballots,” Matt Dietrich, Illinois State Board of Elections public information officer, told FarmWeek.

Given the huge numbers of vote-by-mail ballots across the country and long lines for early voting, a lot of attention has centered around how quickly those ballots will be tabulated. State election laws vary. While some states don’t allow ballot envelopes to be opened before election day, Illinois election authorities process vote-by-mail ballots as they are received. In Illinois, local authorities are prepared for 2.35 million vote-by-mail ballots.

Dietrich explained vote-by-mail ballots are first stamped with the date and hour they were received. Three election judges then verify the signature on the envelope is the same as the voter’s signature on record. If the signatures match, the envelope is opened and the ballot is fed into the tabulator. The same process is used for early voting ballots, he noted.

“We still have a little more than 1 million (vote-by-mail) ballots” not received, Dietrich said. “Any of those that arrive before Election Day can be processed.”
Voters may also put vote-by-mail ballots in drop boxes authorized by their local election authority. Those ballots are collected daily, and the drop boxes will remain open until the polls close at 7 p.m. Nov. 3, Dietrich said.

Tabulation of processed votes will start at 7 p.m. Nov. 3; however, vote-by-mail ballots postmarked on or before Election Day will still be valid and counted if received within 14 days of Election Day.

While races will be determined by a simple majority, the outcome of the proposed amendment to the state constitution will be more complicated. In Illinois, a constitutional amendment requires either 60% of votes cast on that question or a simple majority of all of votes in the election. Dietrich noted most questions on Illinois constitutional amendments were decided by the 60% provision.

Depending on the size of the margin either in favor or against, the tax amendment question could be called more quickly — if the outstanding vote-by-mail ballots would not be enough to be a deciding factor, Dietrich said.

However, amendment opponents and supporters could be waiting for the outcome. “It’s hotly contested, and could be really close,” Dietrich said. In a close race, 800,000 vote-by-mail ballots yet to be returned and counted could change the outcome.