This election in Champaign County we will be transitioning to a method of handling combined poll locations that is already happening in many places in the State of Illinois.

In the past, at the 22 polling places (44 precincts) where there were two precincts, there were also two sets of judges.  Along with those two sets of judges were two sets of signature books, applications, and assorted other election materials.  Some locations had two sets of booths.  All had a single tabulator.

For voters it could be somewhat confusing because they might not know which line to get in at the polling place.  In addition, a number of voters were frustrated as the line for one precinct might just have a couple voters while their own line had thirty.  Why, they often asked, couldn’t those judges assist with the other line?

Now, new technology that we’ve designed and implemented in our office, makes it possible to easily combine the signature books and other election materials for each polling place that houses two precincts.

For voters, it means that you won’t have to figure out the correct line to stand in.  It also means that all judges in a polling place will be working to serve all voters there.  In a busy election, that will hopefully result in shorter lines.  In a smaller election, it hopefully will mean that we can operate with fewer judges and save taxpayer dollars.

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