On Friday, McLean County Clerk Kathy Michael announced a new vote-by-mail service provided by KNOWiNK, a Missouri-based software company that will be responsible for printing and mailing vote-by-mail ballots for all future McLean County elections.
Attached to the bottom of the ballot will be a slip with a QR code and web address that will give voters the chance to track the mailed ballot and make sure it is received by the county clerk's office.
"It just gives further confidence to the voter," Michael said. "We've been building that confidence through our hard work and dedication and honesty over the years, and now we're really going to enhance that."
Mclean County has received nearly 6,000 requests for vote-by-mail ballots for the general election, but Michael anticipates the number of requests to be as high as 15,000 before November.
Ballots will not fit into the return envelope without removing the tracking slip, which will help to ensure that this information is kept by the voter.
Michael said there also will be a significant cost savings under this new system thanks to the county meeting the qualifications for a nonprofit mailing rate.
Sending vote-by-mail applications to the county's roughly 60,000 registered voters at the current 68-cent first-class rate would have cost $40,800.
That price would fall to $11,400 based on the 19-cent nonprofit rate. However, the applications would still receive the same service level as first-class mail.
Tazewell County officials announced their own partnership with KNOWiNK last month.
Tazewell County Clerk and Recorder John Ackerman said with talks about having only two distribution centers in the entire state, it will become even more important to monitor the status of vote-by-mail ballots.
"The primary factor is the unreliability of the post office going forward," Ackerman said during Friday's press conference. "We have seen more and more ballots that have been withheld and not being delivered to our office."
Tazewell County recently dealt with a citizen who had mailed a primary election ballot on March 19 at the post office in Pekin, which is a block away from the Tazewell County Clerk's Office. But because the ballot got stuck in a machine in Peoria County, Ackerman said it wasn't received until June.
"The citizen did everything right to get their ballot in on time," he added.
KNOWiNK uses the same advanced cybersecurity measures used by the Illinois State Board of Elections, according to Ackerman. However, the company would not be involved with the processing of the ballot after it is mailed.
"They're just printing the materials, the envelopes, the ballots, the stickers, putting them in the mail to the voter and then providing the tracking software so that that ballot can be tracked through the process," Ackerman said.
Ballots will not be opened until they are in the hands of the county's election judges, he added.
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