Voting machines could squawk in Saline
</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[Legislation signed by former Gov. Rod Blagojevich in 2007 requires voting machines in the state to beep loudly and not accept the ballot if a voter fails to vote for a constitutional office.
Voters are not required to vote in every race, but the machines will make sure the voter intended to skip a race. An election judge has to assist the voter by overriding the system or correcting the undervote.
Consittutional offices include governor and lieutenant governor, secretary of state, attorney general, treasurer and comptroller. Some machines are programmed to beep if a voter fails to vote for any office; they can't differentiate between constitutional offices and other races. Machines in Saline County are programmed to beep only on constitutional offices, County Clerk Wille McClusky said.
The change could be a potential nightmare for voters and election judges. In a high turnout election, lines could form at the polling place as voters try to figure out why the machines are beeping at them, McClusky said.
"This is the main reason I am having an election judge school. If I don't school them on doing this it will be awful," McClusky said.
Some election officials have contended the measure violates voters' right to ballot-box privacy. An election judge may have to intervene to help voters. In any case, the beeping machine indicates the voter didn't vote for some office - or perhaps no offices.
"There are people who wish to come in during a primary and cast a blank ballot so they can be considered one party or another," McClusky said.
In Saline County, when a machine beeps due to an undervote a judge will ask the voter if he voted the way he intended. If so, the judge will push the "override" button. If not, the judge will assist the voter in working out his ballot. One judge will be stationed close enough to the machine to hear it beep in case the voter cannot. The beep is not very loud.
McClusky hopes the state legislature revisits the law before the General Election in November. At the election judge school on Tuesday, McClusky asked judges to call their lawmakers if the change produces too much inconvenience for voters.