Hand Sanitizer Fouls Voting Machine In McHenry Co.: Clerk

MCHENRY COUNTY, IL — Hand sanitizer is believed to be the reason behind a broken machine at one polling place in McHenry County on Election Day, county officials told Patch around noon on Tuesday. McHenry County Clerk Joe Tirio said the hand sanitizer used by the voter who then fed their ballot into the machine led to the roller not “getting a good grip on the paper” and the equipment failing.

But the broken machine did not slow traffic or voting, and it’s pretty typical for a handful of machines to buston Election Day, Tirio said. The couple of machines that broke down so far Tuesday were traded out and brought back to the clerk’s office for repairs.

And no major issues have been reported at polling places so far.

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Overall, its been slow at the polls across McHenry County, which has 235,555 registered voters, Tirio said. There were some lines when polls first opened at 6 a.m., but otherwise, “it’s been really light.”

“Most polling places where I stopped in to see how they were doing there were more election judges than voters,” Tirio said.

As of 11:25 a.m., 23,899 voters had cast their ballot at the polls on Election Day, which amounts to just under 10 percent of total registered voter. Typically, that number is much higher on Election Day, Tirio said. The total voter turnout last presidential election was around 98,000.

This time around, more than 100,000 voters had cast their ballot before Election Day as they heeded the advice given by officials urging them to vote early and by mail to avoid crowds at polls due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

So far, 66,835 voters, or 27 percent of total registered voters, cast their ballot early in McHenry County. And another 49,470, or 20.2 percent, have returned their mail-in ballot to the clerk’s office. As of 11:25 a.m. Tuesday, there were about 18,000 mail-in ballots that have not yet been returned.

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Mail-in ballots must be postmarked by Nov. 3 but the clerk’s office has until Nov. 17 to tally those results. The ballots that have been received by 7 p.m. Tuesday will be calculated with the total votes tonight and that will include early, Election Day and mail-in ballots. Those results are expected to be posted on the clerk’s office website by 10 p.m., Tirio said.

The clerk's office this year has a tool available for voters to track their mail-in ballot. More information is available here.

The results will not be “conclusive” and McHenry County will post its final results online on Nov. 18, he said.

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