Annual Meeting of the Peoria County Board of Election Commissioners on August 16, 2019 included Chief Judge Paul Gilfillan swearing in Mark Ketterer and Sandra Burke. Election of Commission Officers included Matt Bartolo Chair, Mark Ketterer Vice Chair, Sandra Burke Secretary, LaColis Reed Treasurer, and James Manning Commissioner. Reed’s term ends 2020. Bartolo and Manning’s terms end 2021. Ketterer and Burke’s terms end in 2022. The Chief Judge appoints the commissioners and considers political party affiliation as part of the appointments.
Executive Director Bride discussed the additional security measures (cameras and security badge additions) installed recently with grant money. Training videos for election judges are being done professionally. Budget was approved to be sent to Peoria County. (Notes: Building rental was up $9500 due to real estate tax dispute. Lease is 15 year with 5 year bump if desired. Software and maintenance contract includes vendors in town for elections. All staff qualified for the County’s longevity (5 year) bonus this year. Election related costs are up because 2020 is a presidential election year.) Director Bride and his staff have started working on next year's budget. He anticipates an increase of 11.57% in total expenses because it will be a presidential election year. This takes into account an increase in vote-by-mail. He believes the Board will be under budget this year and plans to use some of the excess money to buy supplies for next year. The director will sit down with the County administrator at the end of July to go over the proposed budget. The Election Commission will need to approve it at the August meeting with the County Board voting in November.
There was not a lot of business to conduct since there are no pending elections. Commissioner Reed was out of town and Commissioner Burke arrived ten minutes late. During the discussion of expenses, Director Tom Bride explained that he wanted the payments for Ameren and the cleaners to be pre-approved since the bills were not expected until after the monthly meeting. This way he could avoid late payments since he knew approximately what those amounts would be. Irene Pritzker, Observer The Peoria County Election Commission met on Tuesday, June 11, 2019, for their regular monthly meeting. All were present except for Commissioner Sandra Burke who arrived after the business part of the meeting was completed. Also present was Chief Circuit Judge Paul Gilfillan.
Board Chairman David Collins resigned that day because of a change in employment. Judge Gilfillan swore in new Commissioner James Manning at the end of the meeting. Matt Bartolo will serve as Board Chairman until the end of the fiscal year in August. Commissioner LaColis Reed was late, and Commissioner Sandra Burke was absent.
The Board approved training pay for election judges to rise from the current $25 to $35, dependent on the approval of the 2020 budget. This would bring judges' pay in line with the pay raise in Tazewell County and encourage attendance at training sessions. Approval was also granted for using part of the Election Security Grant to add two indoor cameras and two access control doors in the Election Commission office and warehouse. This will cost $8840 of the $36,000 grant, still allowing for future needs. Also approved was the use of election data by Larry Aspin for a study of cumulative voting. (The League is hoping to use Larry's expertise in its study.) The main order of business was finishing up the April consolidated election.
Donations were approved to Limestone ROTC and the Peoria County Auxiliary Police. They helped on election day to facilitate the collection of ballots that night. Chairman Collins expressed his appreciation of their work. The official canvas was scheduled for April 17, with all ballots counted. The total count was down from two years ago, probably because two jurisdictions in the County had no contested races. Where there were contests, voting was up. Mail-in voting was up 175%, but on site voting was down. It was reported that precinct voting results can be found on the County GIS site which can be reached from the Election Commission website. When I checked, I found results for last November's election, but not the ones in February or April of this year. Hopefully they will be up soon. Irene Pritzker, Observer The Peoria County Board of Election Commissioners met on Thursday, March 14, 2019. Everyone was present except LaColis Reed. All of the bills that were approved were standard. The Verizon bill was a little higher because the hot spots are on. There was a bill for software support, and a bill to Amazon for something that could not be found locally.
The Board approved moving Precincts 02 and 20 from Hollis Grade School to the Bartonville Christian Church. This had been discussed at the February meeting but could not be approved at that time because plans were finalized too late to be included in the agenda. In the updates on the primary and general elections, Director Tom Bride said the judges liked the pollbooks, and the drop off changes that were planned after the November election went very smoothly. Turn out at the primary was 10.8%, which was higher than two years ago. As of March 14, 761 ballots had been mailed out (which is ahead of two years ago), and 233 people had voted early. Tom is expecting a turn out of over 20% for the general election. Irene Pritzker, Observer The Peoria County Election Commission held its monthly meeting on Tuesday, February 12, 2019. Commissioner LaColis Reed was out of town. Under Approval of Bills, Executive Director Tom Bride was reminded to buy locally whenever possible. Early voting location and hours for the April 2, general election were approved. Early voting outside the city of Peoria begins on February 21. Residents of Peoria will have to wait until Friday, March 8, after the results of the primary have been certified. Hollis Grade School will no longer be a polling place because of the school's safety concerns. Those precincts will be moved back to Bartonville Christian Church, although official approval cannot happen until next month. The church board did not pass this until the morning of the Commission meeting, so it could not be on the agenda. Pollbook training started on February 13. As of February 12, 250 people had already voted by mail and 250 people had voted early at the Commission office.
The Commission then moved into Executive Session to discuss pending litigation. Irene Pritzker, Observer The Peoria County Board of Election Commissioners met on Tuesday January 8, with Commissioner Burke absent. During the discussion of bills, it was learned that the many miscellaneous charges listed would finish paying all expenses from the November election.
Early voting for the primary election on February 26, will only be held in two locations: the election office and the downtown library. The only race on the ballot will be for Peoria City Council. Early voting will begin on January 17, and run until February 25. State statute requires that the election office be open for voting during that whole period. The downtown library will only be open Thursday through Saturday, February 21-23. The Federal Companies was the low bidder for delivering the equipment to polling places. 12/11/2018: The Peoria County Board of Election Commissioners met on Tuesday, December 11, 2018, with commissioners Bartolo and Burke absent.
Under approval of bills, two large items stood out. The Verizon bill included election day, and rent will include January 2019. The Commission approved the purchase of pollbook software from VR Systems of Tallahassee, Florida. It was one of two low vendors. Peoria County IT looked at it, along with Director Tom Bride and assistant Elizabeth Gannon, who felt it best served the County's needs. The election office has started planning for the city primary in February. They will be sending out letters to polling places. Early voting will be held in the election office, hopefully with three days of voting in a downtown location. Director Bride prefers the main library, but it is closed on Sundays. The Commission will approve the schedule in January. The subcommittee looking into efficiencies after the November election should have its report ready next month. The State's Attorney reported on the challenges to candidate petitions, both of which have now been deemed invalid. Early voting and vote by mail will begin on January 17, 2019. Irene Pritzker, Observer 6/5/2018: The Election Commission held their monthly meeting on June 5, with all commissioners present. They started by approving the payment of bills, even though monthly bills for Ameren, American Water, and the copier had not yet arrived. This was due to the early meeting date (the first Tuesday of the month rather than the second).
Executive Director Tom Bride gave an update on the Brandywine location. He stops by several times a week to check on progress. Currently, they seem to be on schedule for a September 1 move in date. Metal studs and door framing are up, and electrical and fire alarm work is being completed. Bride's attendance has been helpful because an error was discovered in the placement of a wall. It would have run into a window, so it was moved slightly. Bride will also be putting out a Request For Proposal (RFP) for software and/or hardware for the ePollbooks. The current software will not be supported after the fall election. He is hoping that new software will work on the current pollbooks. He is looking for a three year contract. Irene Pritzker, Observer |
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