After canvassing today, and after counting 22 additional ballots (16 late-arriving absentees and 6 accepted provisional ballots), we have updated the results from the April 5 Consolidated General Election.  These results are final, have been certified as such and have been transmitted to the State Board of Elections.    We have some tasks remaining for this election, but we have already begun planning for the March 20, 2012 General Primary election.

An important piece of those preparations is a post-election evaluation that we will conduct over the next several weeks.  During an election, we ask election judges, workers, our staff and voters for feedback and suggestions.  We will go through this information as a staff, often in consultation with election judges and election day coordinators, review our procedures, and begin to implement changes almost immediately in some cases.

To assist us in better evaluating our elections administration and to help us improve your voting experience, please let us know your suggestions, ideas and criticisms.  Of course, we’d also like to know if you had a positive experience or want to share a complimentary story about an election judge, worker or our staff.  We’ll include all of these comments with the other information we consider when evaluating how we can serve you better.  You can share your feedback here in comments, by calling us (384-3724), by email, on Facebook or Twitter.

Thank you.

In accordance with 10 ILCS 5/24B-15, we conducted our state-mandated retabulation this morning.  Retabulation is a post-election verification of the results we reported on election night.  After each election, the Illinois State Board of Elections randomly selects five percent of Champaign County’s precincts (usually six of our 117 precincts) for retabulation.  It is open to the public and media, and the leaders of the Democratic, Green and Republican Parties are invited.  Retabulation consists of re-testing the tabulators used in each precinct polling place on election day, verifying the test results, and then re-scanning and tabulating all of the early/absentee ballots that were cast in our office, and all of the ballots that were cast in the precinct on election day.  We check to ensure that the total number of ballots cast is the same on election day and on retabulation day.  We also perform a hand count of one race in each of the six precincts, with each established party choosing the race to hand count in two precincts.  Retabulation verifies that counting the same ballots in the same tabulator a second time gives the same results.

The precincts selected by the State Board for retabulation after the April 5, 2011 Consolidated General Election were  Ayers, City of Champaign 35, Cunningham 23, Mahomet 1, Mahomet 3 and Sadorus Ivesdale.  You can view the retabulation results here.

In five of the six precincts, the results of our retabulation and hand count exactly matched the unofficial results we reported on election night.  In Mahomet 3, as you can see here, we had two early/absentee ballots that had been correctly tabulated at the office but that could not be correctly tabulated by the machine in the precinct.  These ballots were counted and reported on election night, but because of how they were marked (with Xs in one case, with pencil in the other) the precinct tabulator would not read them.  We copied the ballots, explained the issue, and included them with our report to the Illinois State Board of Elections.

We will count late-arriving absentee ballots and accepted provisional ballots on Tuesday, April 19 for our final canvass.  After those results are included in our totals from election night, our results will be final and official.

Please share with us any comments, concerns, suggestions or complaints about your experience voting today.  Thank you.