The Will County clerk’s office is looking to automate its vote-by-mail system after a record-breaking number of residents voted by mail in the 2020 presidential election.

If the Will County Board approves Clerk Lauren Staley Ferry’s proposal, it could be implemented for the 2022 elections.

The automated process would save time and money while ensuring security and accuracy, Staley Ferry told the board’s Executive Committee Thursday.

The clerk’s office looked at two of the biggest companies that handle vote-by-mail automation and is recommending the county board approve BlueCrest.

The total cost would be between $1.8 million and $1.9 million to complete the automation process, said Chuck Pelkie, chief of staff for the clerk’s office. The total price, which could be funded through the American Rescue Plan grants, includes initial startup fees, a five-year maintenance agreement and renovations to the basement in the clerk’s office to handle the new equipment, Pelkie said.

The pandemic caused a massive interest in residents wanting to vote by mail, and registered voters now have an option to apply to be placed on a permanent vote-by-mail roster, Staley Ferry said.

The clerk’s office reported it received 123,779 vote-by-mail requests in the 2020 election. Of those, 109,997 ballots were returned and counted.

By contrast, there were only 30,192 vote-by-mail requests with 25,637 ballots returned and counted in the 2016 election, the clerk’s office said.

“The numbers that we saw in 2020 and even in 2021 were staggering,” Staley Ferry said. “A huge increase in vote by mail and it’s here to stay.”

Pelkie said the clerk’s office fulfilled the large number of vote-by-mail requests by diverting its staff and hiring more than 20 part-time election judges to manually assemble the voter packets while maintaining pandemic-safety protocols such as social distancing, hand washing and mask wearing. The office spent $129,000 on part-time election workers, Pelkie said.

The manual process is labor intensive, costly and requires multiple levels of proofing to ensure accuracy, officials said.

Manually, the group could assemble a maximum of 5,000 packets per day, Pelkie said. If the office went to a fully automated system, it could produce 45,000 packets per day, he said.

The automated technology will help save money and time spent on assembly and sorting, Pelkie said.

Savings would also come from postage because the size of the vote-by-mail packets could be smaller. The county spent about $300,000 in postage, which could be cut in half with the automation process, Pelkie said.

BlueCrest offers fast, accurate, secure assembly and high-speed sorting, Pelkie said. It can track the packages through the mail and can detect unusual returns. What the clerk’s office did manually in six weeks could be done in less than one week with the automation process, he said.

“It allows for very intensive quality control,” he said.

Because the clerk’s office prepares for elections months in advance, it is asking the county board to consider its proposal as soon as possible, Staley Ferry said.

County board members said Thursday they were interested in the proposal.

Member Jim Moustis, a Republican from Frankfort, said the board historically has always supported the clerk’s office.

“If it makes the system more efficient, or as efficient as we can be, I suppose that’s a plus,” Moustis said.

Michelle Mullins is a freelance reporter.