In his 20 years in McHenry County, Democratic Party Chairman Mike Bissett said he's never seen an election like Tuesday's — not in its outcome, but in how the vote was conducted.
He cited widespread problems with a new computerized voter registration system, and a lack of communication that caused some polling places to close despite a court order to stay open an extra 90 minutes.
"This was the worst election I've seen — not by a little, by a lot," said Bissett, who was joined by Republican leaders in criticizing the handling of the election.
County Clerk Mary McClellan issued an apology late Thursday "to any voter or official who was unable to immediately communicate with me or a member or my staff."
But McClellan, a Republican, and her supporters defended the way her office conducted the election, saying the problems were being blown far out of proportion to score political points.
Nearly every county runs into some problems on Election Day, officials agreed, but what happened in McHenry County was unusual for a variety of reasons.
McHenry was the only county out of 109 voting jurisdictions statewide to extend voting hours by judge's order to make up for problems caused by electronic voter registration, a state official said.
The new registration system was prompted by a change in state law that for the first time required larger counties to allow voters to register at polling places and vote on Election Day. The new electronic poll books allowed election judges to check by computer tablets or touch screens whether each voter was registered, rather than the prior method of checking signatures in a book.
But some polling places in McHenry County were late in opening, and voters were delayed or temporarily turned away because of problems getting the registration system to work, officials said. When election judges who couldn't operate the computers called the clerk's office for help, they said they often couldn't reach anybody, or had to wait for help.
The problems caused so many complaints to both Democratic and Republican officials Tuesday that they jointly asked the office of State's Attorney Louis Bianchi to intervene, he said. Prosecutors said they contacted the clerk's office and then went before a judge, who issued an order to extend voting hours to 8:30 p.m. instead of the usual 7 p.m.
The extent of the problems was unclear. Bissett estimated some 20 percent of polling places had problems.
But in a news release Thursday, McClellan said the problems affected fewer than 20 precincts out of 212, and that the issues were quickly resolved, often within 15 minutes. Her office successfully handled a record voter turnout with almost 88,000 votes cast and a nearly 43 percent turnout, she said. She also said she approved the request for extended hours.
"While simple software glitches caused a delay, the integrity of the voting process was never jeopardized and this was and will remain my highest priority. I would welcome any review of my process or the events of Election Day by the State Board of Elections," said McClellan, who was elected to the office in 2014 and oversaw her first presidential primary election Tuesday.
There was no indication of impropriety in the voting process, Bianchi said, but he added that the voting was marred by a lack of preparation and training for election judges.
At the request of State Rep. David McSweeney, R-Barrington Hills, the Illinois State Board of Elections on Friday began looking into what caused the problems, Assistant Executive Director Jim Tenuto said. The review will likely result in recommendations to the state board, he said.
"We're going to make sure this doesn't happen again, and to ensure the integrity of the system," McSweeney said.
A leading critic of the handling of the election was Nick Provenzano, a county board member who ran for clerk against McClellan in the GOP primary and lost in 2014.
Provenzano previously questioned McClellan's hiring of her husband, Edward Gil Jr., to work in the clerk's office, where county records last year showed he had a salary of about $53,000 as an election administrative analyst.
The most serious problem Tuesday, Provenzano said, was the failure to properly notify all the election judges to keep the polls open longer, which resulted in some polling places closing and voters potentially being denied a chance to vote.
The clerk's office also apparently did not attempt to notify voters directly about the polls remaining open late, either on its website or through social media. The county sent a news release to some media outlets. The clerk's office did not return repeated calls from the Tribune on Election Day or the day after.
Provenzano said neighboring counties had finished counting votes in tightly contested state representative races, but McHenry was lagging before posting unofficial totals Thursday.
"I really question her judgment," Provenzano said. "One of government's most important responsibilities is to ensure we have fair elections."
County GOP Chairwoman Sandra Salgado agreed that preparation and communication were lacking, and said these weren't the "run-of-the-mill" voting problems.
"This was not a small incident," Salgado said. "I think it is serious, because now we have people who didn't vote."
She hoped the clerk would clearly identify what went wrong and make changes to prevent a repeat of events in the November general election.
In retrospect, McClellan said, a county vendor should have tested more of the polling place tablets and touch screens beforehand. She said her office trained each poll worker for 31/2 hours but that perhaps she should test them ahead of time to make sure they can operate the equipment.
She also gave assurances the problems won't happen again.
"There were some hiccups," she said. "Was it the disaster that everyone's painting it as? Absolutely not."
rmccoppin@tribpub.com
Twitter @RobertMcCoppin
Source: Voting problems mar Election Day in McHenry County
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