Chapter 2 — Basic Poll Watcher Rights & Responsibilities

2.C. The Lay of the Land, The Polling Place and Central Counting Facility

2.C.4. The Voting Booth Area

2.C.4.b. The Exception: THE ONLY TIME a Poll Watcher Is Allowed In the Voting Booth Area When A Voter Is Present

If a voter requests assistance from an Election Judge to vote, then 2 (two) Election Judges (from different parties) go into a voting booth to assist a voter.

See: Voter Assistance From Two Election Judges

A poll watcher can accompany the Election Judges. The poll watcher should do their best to station themselves where they cannot see the ballot of any voter in the area.

Poll watchers are allowed in the voting booth area, but we caution the poll watcher to be circumspect.

As always, no statute requires you to keep silent, but you have two important reasons to keep quiet:

  • 1. The rule against electioneering.
  • 2. The rule that the secrecy of the ballot be not impinged.

In a nutshell, shut up. This is where all the misbegotten rules laid on poll watchers comes into play. A poll watcher can answer questions directed to the poll watcher and can challenge for cause, otherwise don't say anything.

While you are poll watching on a voter assist: YOU HAVE NO RIGHT TO SEE THE BALLOT. None. Don't ask. Avert your eyes.

That goes double for the other voters in the voting booths around you.

From the time the voter is handed a ballot until the ballot is deposited into the tabulator/ballot box or placed in a security envelope, do not talk to the voter.

Try to position yourself where you cannot see the ballot or the ballot of any other voter. You may twist yourself into a pretzel, but it is better than an argument on impinging upon the secrecy of the ballot.

The secrecy of the ballot is already impinged by the Election Judges, don't add to it.

Anything that you overhear regarding the vote is secret. Do not react. Do not comment. Do not gesture. Do not grimace. In fact, try to position yourself out of the line of sight of the voter.

Recognize that when you in the voting booth area when voters are present, you are walking on egg shells.

The rare occasion when a poll watcher is in the vicinity of voters with open ballots only amplifies the poll watcher's need to be neutral and circumspect.

thumbRule of Thumb
Self-Restrict the Number of Poll Watchers.

This isn't a circus parade.

One poll watcher is optimal. Two is the limit.

You don't need half a dozen poll watchers jumping up on a voter assist.

In this, discretion is the better part of valor. Sit down. There are other things to observe.

No person other than the election officers and the challengers allowed by law, and those admitted for the purpose of voting as herein provided, shall be permitted within the proximity of the voting booths,

  • (i) except by authority of the election officers to keep order and enforce the law and
  • (ii) except that one or more children under the age of 18 may accompany their parent or guardian into the voting booth as long as a request to do so is made to the election officers and, in the sole discretion of the election officers, the child or children are not likely to disrupt or interfere with the voting process or influence the casting of a vote.

— 10 ILCS 5/17-8

Pollwatchers shall be permitted to observe all proceedings and view all reasonably requested records relating to the conduct of the election, provided the secrecy of the ballot is not impinged,...

— 10 ILCS 5/7-34

Primaries

— 10 ILCS 5/17-23

General, municipal, and consolidated elections.

 
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