Complaints Over Kane Co. Voting Machines Investigated

KANE COUNTY, IL — The Kane County Sheriff Ron Hain and Kane County State's Attorney Jamie Mosser have investigated complaints regarding new early voting machines in Kane County and have deemed those complaints to be unfounded.

The first set of complaints received alleged that the Kane County Clerk had purchased
unapproved voting machines.

On August 8, the Kane County Board passed a resolution authorizing the Kane County Board Chairman to enter into an agreement with Kane County Clerk Katherine Hart for the upgrade of the Kane County voting system. The complaints alleged that the purchase of the voting equipment prior to its approval by the Illinois State Board of Elections violated the Illinois Election Code, according to a joint statement from the sheriff's office and the state's attorney.

On November 21, the Illinois State Board of Elections voted to give Hart a two-year interim approval of their Verity 2.7.1 IL voting system. According to the staff report recommending approval of the voting system, ISBE noted that on August 11, Hart requested approval of the system for the March 19 general primary election.

Administrative regulations required Hart to submit its application for approval no later than September 18, according to the statement. The ISBE staff report indicates that Hart’s Voting System meets the applicable Illinois statutory and regulatory requirements.

"While it appears that a portion of the Illinois Election Code regarding the timing of the
sale of electronic voting systems may not have been strictly complied with, the Voting System
was approved before it was ever used in any election, including prior to early voting for the
March 19, 2024, General Primary Election," officials said in the statement. "We have not been presented with any evidence or any specific allegation showing that Hart knowingly intended to disregard the relevant provisions of the Election Code. Moreover, the corresponding ISBE rules for the approval of voting systems state that no voting system shall be used in Illinois unless approved for use by ISBE."

Questions were also raised during sample public demonstrations of the voting system, hosted by the county clerk to educate voters on the use of the new equipment. At that time, several individuals reported that they submitted a name during the mock demonstration, but another name was generated and printed on the ballot.

And also, the machines had difficulty feeding the paper ballots into the scanning device.

Regarding the first issue, the machines that were used by the public were demonstrative
machines provided by Hart. The demonstration program used by Hart is the same nationwide
and is meant to display the capabilities of the program, according to the statement.

Some states allow a candidate to use an “alias” name on the ballot. To demonstrate the system’s capacity to accommodate these laws, the test displays the name “Abraham Lincoln” on the screen and prints out the alias “John Muir.”

"While understandably confusing to those using the machines during the demonstration, as that is not the procedure in Illinois, the machines that will be used for the March 19, 2024, General
Primary Election will have only one name," according to the statement.

On Tuesday, a State’s Attorney investigator and the State’s Attorney visited the county clerk’s office with a request to try the machines. During the visit and a "test vote," they were able to sample ballots for each primary ticket.

"At the voting machine, the ballot number was entered, and the corresponding ballot was seen on the screen. Both were able to select test votes and confirm the selections made on the screen. The votes were then printed onto the ballot paper, and they were able to confirm that what was printed on the paper was who they had each respectively voted for on the machine," according to the statement. "They were lastly directed to submit the paper ballot to the scanning device. Neither had any difficulty in feeding the final ballot into the scanning device."

An investigation into the complaints concluded that there were no issues with the voting machines. During the voting process, "the Kane County Clerk’s Office, in an abundance of caution, will have the election judges ready and willing to assist any voter with the submission of their final ballot," according to the statement.

"We also believe that the Kane County Clerk’s Office is generally prepared to assist during the voting process if there are any issues with that process," officials said in the statement. "Based on this, we have found that the complaints are unfounded and that the matter is closed."