Tazewell County voters who choose to vote-by-mail for the Nov. 5 election should have confidence that their ballot will arrive on time at the county clerk's office.
"That's because voters can monitor the progress of their ballot. They've been empowered to do so," said Tazewell County Clerk/Recorder John Ackerman.
The reason for Ackerman's optimism is the county's new collaboration with KNOWiNK, a Missouri-based company that is printing and mailing vote-by-mail ballots to voters. Votes will still be opened and tabulated in Ackerman's office.
At the bottom of each vote-by-mail ballot is a perforated section that needs to be ripped off before the ballot is mailed. The section contains a ballot tracking number, and a website and QR code that can be used to track the ballot.
A vote-by-mail ballot won't fit in the return envelope without removing the slip with the tracking information.
"This is the same method for tracking, say, a Fed Ex delivery," Ackerman said. "If the ballot seems to be held up somewhere, call the post office."
County election officials also can track each vote-by-mail ballot and take action, Ackerman said.
Ackerman said he's had concerns about the U.S. Postal Service's efficiency for years and now with the post office's plans to use regional Instead of local facilities to sort the mail, "that's more hands dealing with mail and more risk for something to get lost," he said.
Ground zero for Ackerman's concern about the USPS was a Tazewell County voter who mailed a primary election ballot at the Pekin Post Office on March 19, one day before the primary.
The ballot arrived at Ackerman's office, just a few blocks from the post office, on June 18, after getting stuck in machinery in Peoria, he said.
"The voter did everything right," Ackerman said. "That was one of about 30 primary ballots that were mailed on time and got to us too late. That's just not acceptable."
Using KNOWiNK to print and mail vote-by-mail ballots to voters has resulted in a cost savings for the county, Ackerman said.
About 10,000 ballots were mailed Thursday, the first day of early voting.
Had the county mailed the ballots to voters using the first-class postage rate (73 cents) as usual, it would have cost about $20,000.
Using the not-for-profit bulk mail rate that KNOWiNK uses (20 cents), it cost about about $2,000.
"We're going to save more than $30,000 per election using KNOWiNK," Ackerman said. "They're handling the printing, labor and supplies for the vote-by-mail ballots. I want to emphasize that we'll still open the vote-by-mail ballots. That won't change."
The iconic "I voted" sticker will be inside each vote-by-mail ballot, Ackerman said.
Vote-by-mail become popular across the country in 2020, the first year of the pandemic.
In Tazewell County, 15,076 voters utilized vote-by-mail for the 2020 election, compared to 4,331 in 2012 and 3,932 in 2016. Ackerman anticipates about 12,000 voters will vote-by-mail this year.
