Computer glitch delays election results in Lake Co., official says

At least they didn't blame it on hanging chads.

Unlike the excruciatingly tiny bits of paper at the center of the 2000 presidential election snafu, election results in Lake County were waylaid Tuesday night by a much more high-tech ballot blunder.

Computer problems prevented the Lake County clerk's office from producing timely vote totals Tuesday.

The computer system that allows the election computers in the county government center in Waukegan to read results from precinct ballot-box counters failed shortly after polls closed at 7 p.m., County Clerk Willard Helander said.

Weather was not a factor, she said.

Efforts to restore the connection failed, prompting Helander to abandon the computer system and order all of the ballot readers brought to her office for counting.

The effort was expected to take several more hours than the original system -- if operating properly -- would have, she said.

"While no one likes to wait, we have to do this the old way," she said. "Election judges have to go to a transfer site and hand off their equipment and those trucks need to drive the equipment in to the county building and be entered in manually."

Ballots cast via early voting and absentee voting were counted and posted to the county's Web site late Tuesday. The first results of votes cast on traditional Election Day ballots -- from 117 of the county's 481 precincts -- appeared on the site about 10:30 p.m.

Helander wouldn't estimate when the county's winners and losers would be known.

"I'm not sure how long it will take, but I would suspect that if you are driving a big truck from Barrington or Antioch, it could take awhile."

A problem like this has never occurred before in Lake County, Helander said. Her staff did not have a contingency plan for the failure, she said.

State Sen. Terry Link, leader of the county's Democratic organization, wasn't panicking Tuesday night as word of the snafu spread.

"It's kind of premature to point a finger," said Link, who ran unopposed in the primary for the 30th District seat he's held since 1997. "I just hope that we can get results as quick as possible. A lot of people are waiting on pins and needles."

Link had been in contact with the county clerk's office Tuesday night and believed the explanation about telephone connectivity problems. There's no reason to suspect political chicanery, he said.

"There are enough safeguards," Link said.

Link has experience waiting for election results. In one of his early Senate campaigns, he didn't find out he won until 3:30 the next morning.

Lake County Republican Federation Executive Director Antoniette Simonian called the gaffe "one of those fluky technological problems."

"When there's a connection problem like that, who really anticipates it and how can you really be prepared?" she said. "The problem didn't exist yesterday."

In Mundelein, a crowd of parents, volunteers and school officials waited inside the administrative office of Mundelein Elementary District 75 for some word of whether their effort to get voter approval for nearly $10 million in construction bonds was successful.

"We keep pushing the refresh button, thinking it's our computer," Superintendent Cynthia Heidorn said.

Lake County Republican Party Chairman Daniel Venturi was disappointed about the lack of timely results, but not worked up about it.

"The whole county is going to be closed (today), so we might as well stay out late tonight," Venturi said late Tuesday.

The delayed results actually gave one candidate a bit of hope late Tuesday.

In the Republican primary for the 8th Congressional seat, Kirk Morris was trailing front-runner Steve Greenberg in Cook and McHenry counties, but holding out for the tardy Lake County votes.

He had good reason -- half of the district's precincts are in Lake County.

"It's never over 'til it's over," Morris said.

Greenberg, however, was confident the Lake County results will mirror what was happening in Cook and McHenry counties.

"So far, it's looking pretty good," he said.

Phil Carter, head of the Big Hollow Elementary District 38 referendum committee, said he would have liked the results for his district's funding proposal to come sooner, but he was understanding of the delay.

"I think the county (clerk's staffers) did as good a job as they could under the circumstances," he said.