Ready to screen voters, count ballots

With all the opinions expressed in Monday's "Taking Sides" about absentee voting and the post office, most everyone has lost track of "the ball."

The important part of election is who counts the votes. As an election judge for more than 15 years, it and has been my (and my fellow judges') responsibility to verify who gets to vote and to count votes when the polls close. We did it in March as the contagion began and are perfectly capable of doing it again. If we can grocery shop, we can vote in person.

I recently received a notice from Cook County Clerk Yarbrough asking if I wanted a mail-in ballot. Not surprisingly, nowhere on the card was there any information regarding the continuing availability of traditional in-person voting. But they did offer a way to mail the requested ballot to a different address than what was on record. It also mentions "making a false statement to obtain a mail in ballot or soliciting someone to do so is considered vote fraud…."

Aren't they doing just that by offering to send ballots to a non-record address?

So who will count these ballots? Where are the checks and balances we employ now when Democratic and Republican judges decide, tally and secure the ballots in two forms - digital and paper.

Yes, we still have paper ballots if desired and we convert digital votes to paper and paper to digital to ensure a paper trail is visible and unalterable so the results can be double- or triple-checked. This is the ONLY way to ensure precinct by precinct veracity, honesty and democracy.

One person, one vote. I hope to see all my neighbors on Election Day Nov. 3.

Marc R. Albertario

Prospect Heights