Lee County experiencing shortage of election judges

DIXON - Election judges are getting harder and harder to come by and with Election Day quickly approaching, Lee County is in need of election judges to run its polling locations, Lee County Clerk and Recorder Nancy Petersen said.

Election judges are responsible for ensuring proper and orderly voting at polling stations, including by signing in registered voters, explaining voting procedure and use of voting equipment, providing ballots, and monitoring the conduct of the election. In Lee County, election judges are designated as either belonging to the Democratic or Republican parties and are paid a stipend for their work on Election Day.

Lee County residents can sign up to be an election judge in the County Clerk’s Office at the Old Lee County Courthouse, located on South Ottawa Avenue in Dixon, up until Nov. 4, the day before the election. To be eligible, individuals must be a citizen of the United States; at least 16 years old on Election Day; if 18, registered to vote at the address where they reside; able to speak, read and write in English; and be “of good understanding and capable of performing the duties” required of an election judge, according to Illinois election law.

The base pay is $165 with the opportunity to earn “bonus money” by attending a training course and taking an exam that tests knowledge of election laws regarding the operation of polling places as well as basic math and reading skills, Petersen said.

Lee County isn’t alone in experiencing an election judge shortage, but it’s gotten especially bad during the past two years, she said.

“People are worried because of what they see on the news ... They’re worried that people will be aggressive [at polling stations],” she said.

According to Illinois election law, each election precinct in a county should have five election judges. For a precinct with more than 600 registered voters, there should be an additional five election judges.

Under local county rules, Lee County is required to have only three election judges per precinct, Petersen said.

“People are worried because of what they see on the news ... They’re worried that people will be aggressive.”

—  Lee County Clerk and Recorder Nancy Petersen

Still, Lee County has 46 election precincts and of those 11 have more than 600 registered voters, meaning the county should have 193 election judges in total.

At the County Board meeting in May, the board certified a list of 154 previous election judges that they could pull from, however not all of them are going to be available, Petersen said.

Elections still run even if the polling locations are short on election judges.

“It just takes a lot longer to get through the line,” she said.

Petersen said one polling place is supposed to have 12 election judges, but due to the shortage, they’ve been running it with about eight.

The number of election judges needed at each polling location varies based on the set up of the building. Generally, each location is supposed to have a greeter, a person assisting at the ballet box and two people – a Republican and a Democrat – at each table, Petersen said.

Ideally, each polling location is supposed to have equal amounts of Republican and Democratic representatives to ensure election transparency. In Lee County, it’s hard to find people representing the Democratic Party because the majority of residents are Republican, Petersen said.

According to the March 2024 general primary election results, 997 people voted in the Democratic primary for president and 3,661 voted in the Republican race.

“We don’t usually have a ton of people that come out to vote,” she said. “A presidential election typically brings out more people.”

At the general primary election about 23% of registered voters cast a ballot, according to the Lee County election results.