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Will County — Will County has purchased new voting machines ahead of the March primary and November general elections and will be demonstrating them for the public.
Will County Clerk Lauren Staley Ferry will be hosting a demonstration for the public from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Friday, Dec. 15, at the Joliet Renaissance Center, 214 N. Ottawa St.
The new equipment reportedly will “thoroughly modernize” the county’s election process and was purchased with $7.8 million in funding allocated by the Will County Board earlier this year, according a news release from the clerk’s office.
The equipment will replace machines that Staley Ferry’s office called “outdated,” including ballot counters and Americans With Disabilities Act devices, some of which were decades old, according to the release.
The new machines function using paper ballots that leave a hard-copy record of a voter’s selections to ensure secure, verifiable elections.
The ballot counters also operate independently of each other and have no wireless communication capabilities, which protects them from potential election interference or hacking, according to the release.
The new election system also will include modernized pollbooks provided by Florida-based Tenex Software Solutions. The new books will streamline the voting process for election judges and reduce wait times for voters, especially in busy polling places.
Tenex also will provide Will County with a new voter registration system, which Will County clerk spokesman Charles Pelkie described as “more intuitive and more efficient,” and said “will allow our staff to move quicker to keep voter rolls updated.”
“I am thrilled to demonstrate the entire suite of new election equipment that will provide Will County citizens with the modern voting system they deserve,” Staley Ferry said in the announcement. “The companies we have partnered with and the new equipment and software we have purchased will completely upgrade Will County’s elections.”
The decision to roll out the new voter machines before the 2024 election gave the clerk’s office 11 months between elections to implement the system changes, the longest period Illinois clerks have between election cycles, Pelkie said.
The equipment was bought from Lisle-based Governmental Business Systems and is manufactured by Texas-based Hart InterCivic election equipment.
The selection of GBS to provide the ballot counters and ADA ballot-marking devices for people with disabilities was reached after a two-year review process.