Touch screens could end privacy problem

Since election ballots are supposed to be secret, many voters object to having to declare a political party before being allowed to vote in Illinois primary elections. Gov. Pat Quinn recently tried to address this issue by amending HB 4842 to require election judges to give primary voters ballots for all parties and then let them choose which ballot to use in the privacy of the voting booth.

As an election judge of long standing, I think this proposal is completely impractical and would lead to chaos on Election Day. But I also think Gov. Quinn is on the right track, and there is a much easier solution. With the advent of touch-screen voting, it is a simple matter to retain primary voting by party and still keep a voter's choice of party a secret.

All that is required is to let voters choose the party ballot as their first step in the touch-screen voting process. This step is already available in the system as part of the backup "manual" operation of touch-screen voting. It just needs to be made the first of the voter's choices in primary voting.

Currently, the voter's choice of party ballot is keyed into an activation card by an election judge, even though the voter is perfectly capable of making this choice in secret at the touch screen voting machine. A simple change to state law would permit voters to make all of their Election Day choices in secret.

If a voter insists on using a paper ballot, he or she would still need to provide an election judge with a party of choice in order for the judge to provide the voter with the correct party ballot. Since most voters would rather use touch-screen machines, this option would decline in importance over time.

George A. Clowes

Mount Prospect