Early in the 2020 election cycle Cook County got new voting machines, or “ballot marking devices” as they are sometimes called. Here in DuPage County, we were jealous. The DuPage machines were decades old and in replacement as the software could no longer be updated.
Cook County’s new machines were reportedly more secure and easier to use. Still, many voters had doubts about electronic machines. Were they secure? Could they steal our identities or be hacked and change our votes? There have been historic, and largely empty, concerns about the vote-counting accuracy of paper versus electronic, though electronic voting has been found to be more reliable and reliable than humans counting. And the machines are certainly much faster.
Since 2020, Clerk Jean Kaczmarek has led the way for DuPage County. Her main priority is that everyone eligible to vote in DuPage County has the opportunity. She worked tirelessly to get secure access to a ballot system with the best possible options. In the end, Ms. Kaczmarek chose the Verity voting solution built by Hart InterCivic.
The state-of-the-art Verity machines make DuPage County the first county in Illinois to use complete on-demand ballot printing for both Early Voting and Election Day voting. Not only has the County upgraded to the most secure, transparent, and user-friendly voting system on the market, the County is also saving money and eliminating waste by printing only those ballots needed by voters based on their home precinct. Last, and most importantly, the new system ensures all voters have the same voting experience—there is no different size or shape of ballot for voters with disabilities. Voters can use a fully accessible ballot marking device and that device produces a ballot that looks like all others. Everyone will be treated equally.
Even with the excitement over the new machines, DuPage County has maintained a strong focus on early voting and vote-by-mail. In fact, on April 6th, 2022, Ms. Kaczmarek