(The Center Square) – Early voting begins in Illinois on Thursday morning, but the state’s 40-day early voting period is accompanied by additional taxpayer costs.
The Center Square asked Rock Island County Clerk Karen Kinney if early voting resulted in additional staffing costs and taxpayer impact.
“Oh yes, it does, because we have to bring in election judges. There are additional employees throughout the election season,” Kinney said.
Kinney said a setup crew loads trucks with election equipment for early voting centers.
“One is in Silvis City Council chambers, and one is in the Milan Municipal Building, and also the Moline Public Library,” Kinney said.
Brown County Clerk & Recorder Jenny Welty said starting Thursday presents a challenge for her office.
“It just makes a crunch, but we've not had any issues so far, knock on wood, of getting everything available for the voters to start early voting,” Welty told The Center Square.
Welty said elections are part of the county clerk’s budget.
“I budget every year for just an elections line item all by itself. so, yes, it is a taxpayer-funded election, basically,” Welty said.
Welty said “express votes,” or blank ballots with a bar code help by pulling the right ballot at the right time.
“That has cut down on some of the cost of the paper ballots because I'm not having as many ballots printed ahead of time, so there's not as much waste at the end of the election,” Welty said.
Welty said her office has a drop box for people who are not comfortable with using the post office for mail-in ballots.
Kinney said her staff of eleven worked overtime after waiting for the Supreme Court to make a decision about mail-in ballots.
“They come in at eight o'clock in the morning, and they go home about 8.30 at night, sometimes nine o’clock, and they're tired. They also work on the weekends,” Kinney said.
Early voting locations can be found online.
Earlier this year, Illinois State Board of Elections Public Information Officer Matt Dietrich told The Center Square there is no recourse if you change your mind after voting early.
“Once you cast that ballot at early voting, it’s just like voting at a polling place on Election Day. You put that ballot into the tabulator and it is gone and there is no retrieving it. You don’t get to revote,” Dietrich said.