Lake County opens new Vote-by-Mail Processing Center
Lake County officials unveiled a newly renovated Vote-by-Mail Processing Center Thursday that they said would improve automation and make voting by mail more secure.
Lake County Clerk Anthony Vega said the new facility provides a centralized location for sending vote-by-mail ballots to voters who request them and where new equipment will more efficiently process inbound ballots that have been submitted by voters .
“It is a significant achievement of the electronic clerk's office to have a modern and professional facility to handle vote-by-mail to this degree,” Vega said. “Before, it was an entirely manual process. This is this is now automated. It allows complete tracking, monitoring and auditing of the whole process from start to finish and it is a milestone for us so we're very proud of that.”
In addition to having an equipment area where ballots will be processed, a viewing room is placed where members of the public, media and civic organizations can watch the process in a professional environment, Vega said.
“I think it really adds to the transparency of ballot counting and you don't have so many different hands on all the vote-by-mail ballots,” said Sandy Hart, Chair of the Lake County Board. “You can essentially watch the ballot process go from A to Z.”
A press release on the new equipment said Lake County partnered with BlueCrest, which it called “a leading provider of automated, high-integrity mail ballot solutions” to expedite the vote-by-mail process. The technology facilitates printing, envelope assembly and mailing of ballots, as well as verification, sorting and opening of envelopes upon their return. The machinery will be able to compile about 1,200 ballots per hour.
The initiative was funded by federal dollars and was approved by the Lake County Board.
In 2021, Kane County was the first county in Illinois to implement automated vote-by-mail processing, also partnering with BlueCrest. Their equipment operates out of the county clerk’s office in Geneva, according to Kane County Clerk Jack Cunningham. Similarly, DuPage County has a machine that sorts vote-by-mail ballots out of their county clerk’s office, Chief Deputy County Clerk Adam Johnson said.
Vega said the primary reason for upgrading to automatic vote-by-mail processing was the increasing popularity of voting by mail. In 2020, the Lake County Clerk’s Office sent out nearly 170,000 vote-by-mail ballots, which he said was inefficient to process manually.
Additionally, Vega said that it used take multiple days to manually compile 1,200 ballots, a volume that now can be completed within an hour.
Voters can check the status of their mail-in ballot through their online accounts, which every voter is registered for. They can also sign up for a service called Ballot Tracks that will alert them with email and text notifications regarding the status of their ballot, Vega said.
“It reinforces confidence in our electoral system and is a step forward, especially in a time where the entirety of our elections are still being called into question,” Vega said. “I strongly believe that election authorities have to be very proactive in showcasing to voters that we will be fair, accurate and professional when it comes to handling elections and that elections in Illinois and in the United States of America are safe and secure.”