Kane County Clerk’s Office hosts Minneapolis election staff

GENEVA – Kane County Clerk John Cunningham recently hosted staff from Minneapolis Election and Voter Services Office to have a tour and demonstration of vote-by-mail automation equipment at his Geneva office, according to a news release.

Cunningham explained how the automated process saved time and money during recent elections.

Katie Smith, Minneapolis Assistant City Clerk-Director of Elections and Voter Services and Mail Manager Jon Martin toured the Geneva office, according to the release.

“We were very impressed by the speed of the system and the efficiency of election operations,” Smith said in the release.

“Being able to handle all parts of the voting process – from printing ballots to preparing them to be mailed, to sorting and counting them – in house – is wonderful,” Smith said in the release. “What Kane County is doing is a model for us, and we look forward to incorporating some of what we learned today into what we do in our office.”

Prior to the November 2020 election, Cunningham bought an automatic sorter to process inbound vote- by-mail ballots and an inserter to assemble the outbound vote-by-mail ballots and envelopes.

The sorter time stamps the ballot when it comes into the office, scans the voter’s signature so a bipartisan panel of election judges can compare it to the signature in the voter registration database. Then it sorts the unsigned or empty envelopes from the good ones and prepares the envelopes to be opened by the election judges, according to the release.

The inserter automates the previous manual process of assembling the vote-by-mail ballot, affidavits, instructions, and return envelope inside a larger envelope.

Cunningham estimated his office saved over $675,000 in personnel and postage expenses in assembling and processing the more than 84,000 vote-by-mail ballots in the November 2020 election and achieved additional savings in subsequent elections.

The automation upgrades of vote by mail equipment has also increased security of the the ballots, allowed greater transparency and more accurate and timely reporting of vote by mail ballot results – and accountability, according to the release.

Although Kane County has slightly more registered voters than the city of Minneapolis, both jurisdictions are of similar size.

Minneapolis joins a group of other election authorities from Illinois such as Lake and Winnebago counties, as well as other states including Indiana and Ohio, to tour the Kane County Clerk’s Office and share best practices, according to the release.

Cunningham is a past president of the National Association of County Recorders and Clerks.

“I have worked with election officials from around the country and built a network to discuss best practices, evaluate election equipment and develop new innovative ways to provide services,” Cunningham said in the release.

“As Kane County Clerk, I continue to work closely with other election officials to discuss the challenges we face, and develop ways to work together to find creative ways to serve the public more efficiently and save taxpayer dollars,” Cunningham said in the release.

More information is available online at www.kanevotes.org, Twitter @KaneCoILClerk, and Facebook www.facebook.com/kanecountyclerk.