Senate Bill 172, which could take effect in June, amends the state's election code by changing the process of absentee voting, approval of election judges, dissemination of election information online, voter registration and registration grace periods.
There are a lot of other whys and wherefores, but suffice to say, McLean County election officials say it would cost $300,000 to follow all the rules of yet another unfunded state mandate.
For those who follow election minutiae, the proposal requires election authorities to make sure anyone can register to vote and then cast a ballot at any polling place on Election Day.
That's where it gets really expensive: Last week, County Clerk Kathy Michael told the McLean County Board it could cost $300,000 for her office to implement that part of the bill, which would require special laptop computers to immediately determine whether a person already had registered and voted in the same election. (It's Illinois: Vote early, vote often.)
Once in place, Michael said the provisions of SB 172 could cost McLean County about $17,000 per election. Keep in mind that cost does not include the city of Bloomington, whose elections are run by the Bloomington Election Commission.
Currently, nonregistered voters can register and cast a same-day vote at the county clerk's office. A proposed amendment to SB 172 calls for the state to at least allow that provision to be made. Otherwise, each authority will have to make sure each polling place has not only enough judges, but enough other staff, to allow same-day registration and voting — and also to check a database to make sure John Smith has not already registered and voted in the same election.
All of this also will require more training.
Keep in mind this new rule would be needed not just for general, consolidated and special elections, but also for primaries. That's a lot of people, paperwork and money for elections that — increasingly — are seeing fewer and fewer people turning out at the polls.
SB 172 certainly isn't the only unfunded mandate on the table and it's not the only one that McLean County and other counties, school districts and cities have to deal with. But it's an example of the kind of strong-arm tactic that Illinois government has dumped on smaller units of government without providing the means to pay for it.
Illinois must get its fiscal house in order. Part of that exercise must be trimming the number of unnecessary mandates.
