Technical issue slows voting process in DuPage County

An undetermined number of DuPage County voters are waiting longer than usual to cast their ballots because of a problem with the county's electronic poll books.

Soon after the polls opened Tuesday morning, the county clerk's office started getting complaints about signatures not appearing as part of the voter records stored on electronic poll books, which are used to check in voters at polling places.

As a result, workers at polling locations throughout the county are having to rely on paper poll books to verify the signatures of voters requesting ballots.

"The binder has all the information for the signature verification," said Pat Bond, the attorney who represents the clerk's office.

Officials said a technical issue caused the problem with the electronic poll books.

Bond said the electronic poll books were updated late Monday or early Tuesday to have the most current data about DuPage's registered voters.

For some reason, the signature records for an undetermined number of voters wasn't visible on the devices after that update.

"The vendor that we use is working to correct that," Bond said.

In the meantime, Bond said all the polling locations were notified about the problem and told to use paper poll books if necessary.

If a signature in the poll book doesn't match the signature the voter provides, the voter is asked to show identification or something else that has their signature for comparison purposes.

Bond said the problem with the electronic book is causing the verification process to take longer than normal.

"It takes a minute or two more to go through the binder book," he said.

Bond said voter turnout is low countywide so "we're not getting calls that people were waiting for an extended period of time."

"It's how we used to do it," he said. "You just look it up. They have the binder right there."