Will County gives public a preview of 2024 voting machines

The Will County Clerk’s Office held a voters open house Friday, giving the public a chance to sample the new election equipment that will be used for the first time during the March 19 primary election.

The experience will not be dramatically different, but voters will notice a few changes, starting with a new privacy accommodation when declaring party preference in receiving a primary ballot.

Instead of stating out loud whether they want a Democrat or Republican ballot, voters will tap a touchscreen to indicate which ballot they want.

The new feature likely will be a welcome change. County clerk employees demonstrating the equipment said it was not unusual for voters to state their party preference in a low voice or whisper.

Another change will be in the ballots themselves.

Instead of filling in ovals, voters will fill in rectangles as they choose candidates.

Tanya Arias, election analyst with the Will County Clerk's Office, demonstrates the new poll book that election judges will use during an exhibit of new election equipment at the Renaissance Center in Joliet on Friday, Dec. 15, 2023. — Tanya Arias, an election analyst with the Will County Clerk's Office, demonstrates the new poll book that election judges will use during an exhibit of new election equipment Dec. 15 at the Renaissance Center in Joliet. (Bob Okon)

County Clerk Lauren Staley Ferry said the switch away from ovals got more attention than she expected among those who came to the exhibit.

“We thought that people wouldn’t notice it,” Staley Ferry said. “But when we tell them that it’s no longer an oval, they say, ‘Really?’”

The rectangle, in theory, will be easier to fill in than an oval.

Chuck Galitz of Joliet said he had hoped that the process, which he compared to coloring and said was time-consuming, would be eliminated altogether.

“I was looking to see if they would get away from the coloring,” said Galitz, one of about 50 visitors who attended the exhibit of election equipment.

Voters use a black pen to color in the rectangle that indicates their choices before handing in their vote to the ballot counter machine.

Chuck Galitz of Joliet checks out the new election equipment put on display by the Will County Clerk's Office at the Renaissance Center in Joliet on Friday, Dec. 15, 2023. — Chuck Galitz of Joliet checks out the new election equipment put on display by the Will County Clerk's Office on Friday at the Renaissance Center in Joliet. The new machines will be used in the March 19 primary. (Bob Okon)

The pen-and-paper process may be a bit old-fashioned, but it’s something Staley Ferry believes Will County voters want to keep.

“I think they like the paper trail,” Staley Ferry said. “They like the fact that we’re using paper ballots in Will County.”

Staley Ferry acknowledged that the election exhibit was intended, in part, to put the new equipment on display in a climate in which the voting process is facing growing scrutiny.

Those who attended, however, mostly included public-spirited residents simply interested in seeing the new voting process.

Among that group was Will County Republican Central Committee Executive Director Christie Strunga, who liked what she saw.

Strunga highlighted real-time features in the new equipment that allow election judges to check on voters as they come to the polls.

“I think it’s a great improvement,” Strunga said. “It protects voter integrity. I think that’s important.”