Every Vote Counts
Cook County Clerk Karen Yarbrough says tip number one – be prepared! Tip number two-do your homework on the candidates before you come in and vote. Lastly, it’s ok to bring your notes with you. She ensures that every precaution will be taken to make sure everyone is safe!
Clerk Yarbrough is excited to report, Cook County has all new voting machines that will streamline the voting process. She adds if you would prefer to use the old paper ballot they will have those available too. In addition, the new barcode system will accurately tally and record of voters ballot, which will make counting votes extremely efficient. After the election, Clerk Yarbrough says the office will do a full audit and confirm that every vote is counted She assures everyone voting will be safe and there will be plenty of antiseptic and gloves available! Watch this video as Lee Neubecker interviews Cook County Clerk Karen Yarbrough and asks about voter tips.
Tuesday, March 17 Vote for your Candidate!
The Video Transcripts Follows
Lee Neubecker: Hi, it’s Lee Neubecker, President of Enigma Forensics. I’m a cyber-security and computer forensic expert witness, and our firm’s based here in Chicago within Cook County, Illinois. And I have the pleasure of having our very own Cook County Clerk, Karen Yarbrough, appearing on the show today to talk to all of you about what you should know, what you should do, as you head out to vote in the next few days. Karen, thanks for being on the show and thanks for sharing these tips.
Clerk Yarbrough: Well, thank you Lee. Thank you for the opportunity. We wanted to be able to tell people what they can expect when they come to vote. For people who come to vote each and every time, they usually know. They, you need to be prepared, and one way you can prepare is by having your own notes on who you want to vote for. We have brand new machines this time, and those machines, it’s going to be a whiz. Everybody has told me they love the new machines. For those who are uncomfortable with using touch screens, we’re going to have the regular paper ballots. But, if you’re prepared to vote, it should take you a few minutes to just go straight through that ballot. And, you know, usually people have problems with all of the judges, do your homework before you come in.
LN: Well, it certainly will help speed up the lines and reduce congestion.
CY: Certainly, certainly.
LN: Also wearing gloves, if you’re really concerned, there’s nothing that prevents you from wearing gloves to vote.
CY: Not at all, we’ve seen a few. You can wear glasses. We’ve seen a few people with gloves on. We’ve seen a few people having their own pens because they plan to pull a, you know they want a paper ballot. So we’re going to, you know, bring your own pen if you’d like. We’re going to, at every station, we’re going to have the bacterial .
LN: The Purell?
CY: Yes, we’re going to have that. We wipe down the stations after each.
LN: You must have got yours early.
CY: Yes we did, yes we did.
LN: You were prepared.
CY: Yes, we wanted to be prepared. We wanted to be prepared. We were hearing about what was going on, and we know that we have one day to do the election actually. We have all of these days for early voting, but we have that one day and we got to get it right.
LN: Now, I’ve heard that there were some concerns regarding the barcode on some of the ballots that gets printed that that could be.
CY: I have no concerns about that, okay. The great thing about our new equipment is while you’ll put your ballot through and the barcode is there, but we have a record of each and every one of those ballots. If we have to go back, and we do, we go back and we review to make sure things are right.
LN: So, on paper it’s doing more than just the QR code. It also has the friendly names printed out.
CY: Yes
LN: Is that correct?
CY: Oh absolutely, yes.
LN: So the concerns that some people had were that, I think the concern was that the barcode could be different from what’s printed. But if that were the case, you’d be able to audit that after the fact.
CY: And we do a full-blown audit at the end of every election just to make sure.
LN: So someone voting, they’ll be able to actually see the print out on paper.
CY: They will be able to have that in their hands. They’ll be able to check their choices and then they will cast their own ballot, not us but them.
LN: And so it gets scanned and digitized, but then the physical ballot gets locked in the box, correct?
CY: Yes.
LN: So, there’s a dual system.
CY: Absolutely.
LN: I think that makes a lot of sense.
CY: It does, it does. And it gives people peace of mind. You hear all of these stories about well, my vote may not count, and this. I mean, all kinds of things. So to prevent those kinds of things, we have new equipment, and we have a new process, and I think people are going to like it.
LN: Great, well everyone get out there and vote. And, thanks Karen for all your work on this to help make sure election day goes smooth.
LN: Thanks.
CY: Thank you.
Cook County Clerk.com
https://www.cookcountyclerk.com/agency/2020-elections