From the Riverside-Brookfield Landmark:

11/7/2006 10:00:00 PM

Some problems still seen at polls

By BOB UPHUES

Back in the spring, in the waning hours of a long election night that saw innumerable problems with equipment, Sherri Stahnke, an election judge assigned to the North Riverside Village Commons had had enough. She vowed she was quitting after 22 years. "I lost faith in the system," said Stahnke. "I turned in the equipment and told them this was unacceptable." Returns for the March primary were so late that all votes weren't tabulated for days. Stories of broken touchscreens, optical scanners and printers were rampant. Some seven months later, things seem to be running more smoothly, with fewer equipment malfunctions and better-trained election judges. Cook County created an equipment manager position for every polling place and trained that person to respond more quickly and ably to problems. And with a stipend of $500 for the position, even the disenchanted such as Stahnke came back for yesterday's general election. "On the whole, things ran more smoothly due to the training of election judges," Stahnke said. "The glitches with the machines are just glitches. It's way better than last time." While things as of 5:30 p.m. appeared to be going pretty well in North Riverside, other area polling places were still running into some of the annoying problems that marred the spring primary election. At Congress Park School in Brookfield, election judge Babette Woods called the equipment situation for Lyons Township, Precinct 4 "shaky." One of the precinct's two touchscreen machines never worked. After visits from four technicians, she was told to simply make do with one. While the other touchscreen machine worked, the paper results tape continually got jammed. "It's a little better this time," Woods said. "But if we had four or five of the touchscreens, it'd be fantastic." At the Precinct 6 table at Congress Park School, Alaa Salem said neither of the two touchscreen machines issued to Precinct 6 worked until one replacement machine was brought in at 4 p.m. Farther north in Brookfield, at the First Congregational Church at the corner of Lincoln and Maple avenues, election judges there reported no problems at all, other than running out of paper tape for the touchscreens briefly. "I think it's been a perfect day," said Ron Pilat, an election judge for Proviso Township Precinct 84, who also said the polling place experienced few problems in the spring. "What's made the difference is that they've created the new position of equipment coordinator, who received a lot of training. I think the voters are satisfied here. There's been little or no waiting." Across the street at S.E. Gross Middle School, there was no such praise for the equipment. None of the four touchscreen machines for the two precincts there worked from 6 a.m. to 11 a.m. Betsy Pasquesi, a judge for Precinct 90, said that the "repair" made to fix the touchscreen was to tape down a lever. As of 5 p.m., her card activator for the touchscreen was still not working, despite promises from Cook County starting at 11 a.m. that someone would be there "shortly" to fix it. "My big worry is will the card activator work when we consolidate the voting information," Pasquesi said. In Riverside, election judges at the Riverside Township Hall and Blythe Park School had to worry more about a crush of TV cameras and assorted press who came to watch Cook County Board president candidate Tony Peraica and Illinois governor candidate Judy Baar Topinka came in to vote. One of the biggest problems at both those polling places was losing the special pens issued by the county for completing paper ballots. Later judges were told that voters could also use ballpoint pens, as long as they pressed down hard on the paper ballots. Nellie Brennan, a judge at the Riverside Township Hall said that location had experienced some intermittent problems with the touchscreens, but voter turnout had been high and there weren't any huge issues with the equipment. At Blythe Park School, JoAnne Kosey said that while they had to replace one optical scanner, people appeared to be taking to the new electronic voting option. "The people who are using the touchscreen are finding it better and easier once they get over the fear of it," she said.