Voting Equipment

Dear Citizens of Henry County,

In order to better serve you and to insure a more productive voting process, the Henry County Clerk's office now conducts elections on optical scan ballots. The ballots are a single sheet of paper, most often printed on both sides, listing all candidates and questions. To cast your vote you will darken an oval to the left of the candidate or question of your choice.

On Election Day, the voter will be issued a pen and a secrecy sleeve with the ballot. The voter should completely darken or fill in the oval next to their choices. After voting, the voter should place their ballot in the secrecy sleeve and proceed to the ballot box.

The Illinois Election Code requires that an election judge inspect the ballot for the initials of the election judge who issued the ballot. This will be done with the voted ballot remaining IN the secrecy sleeve, thereby protecting the secrecy of your voted ballot. If a ballot is deposited in the ballot box without being initialed it cannot be counted. Once the initials are verified, the voter may insert the voted ballot into the ballot box tabulator.

Should a voter attempt to cast more votes for an office than allowed, an over vote occurs. The tabulator will then alert the election judge with a beeping tone. At that point the voter may choose to receive a new ballot to correct the over vote, or have the over voted ballot accepted as is. If the voter chooses to accept the over voted ballot, all votes will be counted except the over voted race.

Demonstrator ballots will be available at your polling place on Election Day. Please feel free to take time to fill in the oval on a sample ballot before you receive your official ballot. We want you to feel comfortable with the new voting system.

Thank you for your continued confidence in the job we do in the Henry County Clerk's office.

Respectfully,

Barbara M. Link, Henry County Clerk/Recorder