Counties seeing major delays in primary ballots

SPRINGFIELD -- Everywhere in Illinois, voters are heading to polling places early to pick their candidates ahead of the Feb. 5 primary election.

Well, almost everywhere.

At least six Illinois counties -- Kendall, Hancock, JoDaviess, LaSalle, Wabash and Woodford -- have had significant delays in receiving their ballots for the rapidly approaching election. Some received their ballots this week, while a couple still are waiting.

The delay has forced election officials to either use new software to print out ballots for early and absentee voters "on demand" or turn them away altogether. It's also compressed election preparation time, making officials nervous about getting everything done with only 12 days before the polls open.

"It's a lot of different situations that are occurring," Kendall County Clerk Rennetta Mickelson said. "It's not easy."

Mickelson could face the toughest job of the county clerks affected. Her suburban Chicago county is the largest and hoped to receive its thousands of ballots by today.

After that, officials will have to test voting equipment, double-check ballots for printing errors and spend late nights and a lot of overtime hours to ensure everything is ready to go for Election Day.

And it's even more challenging because Kendall County is part of a special primary election for a congressional seat vacated by former House Speaker Dennis Hastert.

The ballot problem is with Election Systems & Software, or ES&S, an election vendor that's been involved in thousands of elections throughout the world.

The company is working with 33 Illinois counties this election and a time crunch delayed ballots to the counties affected, the company said in a statement.

Complicating matters was Illinois' new early voting option, which debuted in 2006 and let voters start casting ballots last week.

Wabash County Clerk Marie Kolb said her southeastern Illinois county hasn't heard any complaints from voters about not seeing ballots until Wednesday, but it has made her office's work more difficult.

"We should not have to go through this," Kolb said. "We've got enough to worry about. We're working overtime already."