Saturday, October 26, 2024

There's a question we must ask as we endure another overlong Election Season: Why?

Whoever does the X-posting for the Illinois State Board of Elections (@illinoissbe) does a really good job. If you follow me on X (f/k/a Twitter) you will see that, in recent days, I have been regularly retweeting ISBE elction posts. This one for instance: Or this one: Or this one: Or, finally, this last example (promise, there are more): A couple of things to keep in mind looking at these posts, particularly the three immediately above: First, the ISBE is not wrong. Under the laws currently in effect, it is going to take some time to collect and count all the votes cast in this general election. Second, the ISBE is not responsible for these laws. The General Assembly is. The ISBE and the many local election authorities (in Cook County, we have the Cook County Clerk, who is responsible for the suburban elections, and the Chicago Board of Elections) are charged with implementing the laws and effectuating the intent of the legislature.

Because of our laws, Election Day has morphed into Election Season:
The ISBE has posted information about how election officials are supposed to maintain the integrity of the process. Here are a couple of illustrative posts: But questions about election integrity will arise when the results aren't (and can't) be known for a long time after the polls close. We should know who won and who lost within hours after the polls close... and we won't. It is entirely appropriate for the election authorities to try and educate, and reassure, the public about the many safeguards in place. It is also a losing battle... and not just in Illinois, where we have all heard stories of election shenanigans (some of them quite amusing) since we were little children. And I say this fully believing that elections here are much better run, and much more fairly run, than they were some decades ago.

So I applaud the education efforts of the election authorities. I appreciate them. But there will be suspicions and rumors no matter what. These will smolder in some corners of the Internet -- and every hour's worth of delay in getting results operates as oxygen, increasing the risk that these rumors and suspicions will burst into flame.

So now I have a question: Why is this necessary? Why is it necessary to have such a long, drawn-out election season, particularly one that may not end, as a practical matter, for as much as a week or more after the polls close?

Section 17-15(a) of the Election Code provides, in pertinent part, "Any person entitled to vote at a general or special election or at any election at which propositions are submitted to a popular vote in this State, shall, on the day of such election, be entitled to absent himself from any services or employment in which he is then engaged or employed, for a period of 2 hours between the time of opening and closing the polls; and such voter shall not because of so absenting himself be liable to any penalty...."

There are a few conditions that apply: The voter must ask in advance. The employer can specify when, during the shift, the voter can go. But the employer can not dock the voter for voting.

And, of course, on Election Day, the polls open at 6:00 a.m. and close at 7:00 p.m. -- and all those standing in line when the clock strikes 7:00 are also permitted to vote. So most people should be able to vote on Election Day, before or after work. That much should be obvious.

On the other hand, those of us who have lived here all our lives remember how L trains once developed technical difficulties during the evening rush on a mayoral election day, but only trains headed in certain areas of the City.

And some people work in professions where long days are the norm: Health professionals, perhaps, or firefighters. Maybe not all police officers on most shifts, but detectives can often get tied up for unexpectedly long times. It happens to lawyers sometimes, too.

For all of these and more, some form of early voting might make sense. But more than a month? Now, as a practical matter, our early voting in Cook County starts later than that and opens up to more sites only gradually. Voting in each of Chicago's 50 wards did not start until October 21. That's 15 days for wide early voting, not counting Election Day.

Doesn't that seem like about 8-10 days too many? Surely a motivated person, even though busy and working in a time-demanding occupation, should be able to find an hour or two to go vote in the week before Election Day, right?

And provision is made -- and should be made -- for hospitalized persons and persons who are housebound.

Persons living overseas have until October 28 to request a ballot. Why? Would people overseas not know that there's an election upcoming in the United States? (And, if there were possible, should those people really be voting here?)

People right here in Illinois can wait until October 31 to request a vote by mail ballot.

Ladies and gentlemen, I put it to you thusly: The problem is not VBM per se. The problem is that large numbers of VBM ballots will come in after the polls close since they can be mailed up to and including on Election Day. Anyone who might request a VBM ballot today could also take themselves to an early voting site.

If I were proposing policy, I'd suggest that VBM ballots must be returned, postmarked seven days before Election Day (this year, by October 29). That way, the vast majority of VBM ballots would be in place, ready to be counted, when the polls close on Election Night.

The outcome of the national election -- for instance -- for good or for ill -- would be known on Election Night.

As it should be.

But that's not the way it will work this year. Or for the foreseeable future.

The response to any proposal to curb this expansion of voting season is that any reforms amount to "voter suppression." But why? The burden of persuasion should rest on those who wish to drag out the election, despite the rumors and innuendoes and fear-mongering that arise when the polls have been closed for several hours and the result is still uncertain.

But don't blame the election authorities for the forthcoming uncertainty. The election authorities are doing the best they can with the terrible laws our legislators have given them.

We should demand better, here and around the country.
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3 comments:

  1. AnonymousMonday, October 28, 2024 6:16:00 PM

    There is a great deal of truth to your points. And the whole VBM and early voting have created headaches for election officials which our gallant Legislature will refuse to look at, crying about "suppression" when it is patently obvious the current arrangements not only delay knowing the results, but confuse voters as to getting ballots cast by all means available. ISBE's grand efforts will go ignored by some, but after a certain point, either people believe facts and truth, or they do not. And we know this country has too many people who do not.

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  2. Jack LeyhaneWednesday, October 30, 2024 10:24:00 AM

    Anon 10/28 @ 6:16 p.m. - your point about the headaches that overlong early voting and VBM creates for election officials brings up the local problems with Election Season.

    All of us are rightly concerned with Big Picture stuff right now, but, in addition to dragging out the counting of votes, our current Election Season also creates problems for election officials with ballot security and custody. It introduces third parties into the election process -- anyone handling mailboxes or dropboxes, for example. Election officials can only count what is delivered to them by the postal authorities; they can not guarantee that none go astray along the way. In primary season, the overlong Election Season creates unreasonable pressures on election authorities to decide candidate challenges.

    And in our #CookCountyJudicial races, where many voters at least want to know what the bar associations think of individual candidates for election or retention (whether they follow them or not), the overlong Election Season puts inordinate pressure on JECs to finish evaluations in a timely fashion... which they aren't doing... at least if timely means all done by the first day of early voting. How many would-be JEC volunteers are driven off by the realization that they will be subject to extreme time pressures? Just for a start....

    And who benefits?

    I submit that pruning election season to a week or so, and requiring VBM ballots to be delivered by Election Day, as opposed to being postmarked by Election Day, would help the election authorities, the bar groups, and public confidence in the election process as a whole.

    Who would really be hurt by such a common-sense, obvious reform?

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  3. AnonymousFriday, November 01, 2024 12:55:00 PM

    I'm in complete agreement with the points you stated in your reply. My sympathies to the JEC's trying to do the impossible within over-lapping time frames. I voted before I saw your revised Alliance gried, knowing the early voting sites would only get busier by next week. The somewhat maze-like Illinois voting system would most likely benefit incumbents, as not only voters but opposing candidates can fall prey to issues in the system.

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