Dirty Ballots

Aaron Lawlor, the Lake County Board Chair, has a new dirty job. He is now working for the new Lake County Clerk, Carla Wyckoff. For the lowdown, go to the Lake County website ...

Lake County processed 180,000 voters for the March 15 Primary election – a record turnout. While all the ballots have been cast, the Lake County Clerk's Office still has much work to do. Watch this edition of Lake County's Dirty Jobs where Chairman Aaron Lawlor helps in the clean-up process of the 122 Lake County polling places.


Lake County’s Dirty Jobs: Post Election Cleanup

Lawlor, who has been a candidate on every every Lake County ballot since 2003 (and is a candidate on the November ballot) could be expected to know a thing or two about counting votes. Here, Lawlor volunteers to police some voting equipment, while confessing to the County Clerk that the task is ...

one of the most complicated jobs I've ever seen in County government because there are so many moving parts, so many statutes, and all sorts of things.

Your LakeCountyEye looked up some of those statutes. And not just anyone is permitted to tally ballots in Illinois. Did you know that an election worker must ...

• be a citizen of the United States and entitled to vote at the next election
• be of good repute and character
• be able to speak, read and write the English language
• be skilled in the four fundamental rules of arithmetic
• not be a candidate for any office at the election

Note to Ops: four out of five isn't bad, even with the five-fingered discount.

Here Lawlor shuffles some loose documents atop one voting machine:

All the while, there is more to this job than sweeping up. Equipment needs to be moved:

And with so many moving parts ...

... be careful that something isn't misplaced!