Gov. Blagojevich signed the omnibus election bill SB 662 on Friday. With a single exception, I believe the bill is excellent. Here are some provisions.

Allows first time voters to cast an absentee ballot by mail if they provide sufficient ID to the election authority.

Allows people who sign a petition for one political party to cross over and cast a ballot in the primary of a different political party.

Requires writein candidates to file at least 61 days prior to the election (Thursday, December 6, 2007 for the February Primary). This provision will help us reduce the length of the ballot and eliminate thousands of invalid writein votes which are cast for candidates who have not filed as writeins.

Reduces the number of printouts of election results needed at the polling place. This should save some time for election judges.

Raises the pay for election judges by $20 pending funding by the state.

Allows high school juniors to serve as election judges under the same provisions for high school seniors.

Changes the filing period for independent candidates until June. (previously they would file at the same time as established party candidates)

The unfortunate provision in this legislation takes effect for the 2010 election. That requires our voting equipment to be set to detect undervotes on ballots for Constitutional Offices and to initially reject such ballots. Under this provision, if you go in and vote for Governor, Attorney General, Secretary of State, and Treasurer but leave blank the office of Comptroller, the voting equipment will beep, inform you that you’ve undervoted and give you a chance to recast your ballot. This provision will cause a number of people to have the privacy of their ballot compromised, especially those who are blind or visually impaired and use the Automark Voter Assistance Terminal.

Hopefully, in the next two years we can get this provision changed. Other states have had this provision in the past and then eliminated it because of the problems it causes on election day.

All in all though, this bill is good and will have a positive impact on voters and the election process.

During this last year our staff has been doing a lot of work in compiling the historical documents in this office. One part of that history are the referenda that have been held. We now have a list of those available on our website in date order or in order by taxing district.