Electronic Poll Books

Aurora, Illinois — April 9, 2013 — The future of voting in Aurora, IL has begun. With 73 precincts and more than 199,000 residents, Aurora is Illinois’s second largest city. At the April 9, 2013 election, paper-based poll books were replaced by laptops for reviewing and processing voters.

"The city’s transition to electronic poll books, which were unveiled this election, went very smoothly,” said Linda Fechner, Executive Director for the Aurora Election Commission. The city purchased 73 AskED ePollbooks last year with a state grant. Fechner said that over a 10-year period, the city will save thousands of dollars by not having to buy paper ledgers and voter access card encoders. Fechner said the AskED ePollbooks also capture each voter’s history, diminishing the time it takes election staff to do the same job.

“This new system is faster than paper. In previous elections, we have sometimes had long lines at many polling locations. With the new electronic poll books, we did not have that problem. The system shaves about 20 seconds off the check-in process, which doesn’t sound like much, but adds up over a 13-hour day,” Fechner said the day after the election. “In addition, the system saves paper and printing costs. Judges print out labels solely for those voters who turn out to vote instead of printing applications for all potential voters and then shredding most of them after the election.

Some of the voters who checked-in for the first time weren’t aware the city was making the change, but everyone surveyed said the process was easy. Election judges looked up voters in the system, which indicated if the voter had voted early or not and which presented the person’s correct ballot style. Voters then voted by paper ballot or touchscreen. For those that voted on the touchscreen, the AskED ePollbook automatically encoded a card with the voter’s correct ballot style.

Even non-tech-savvy election judges saw the advantages of the new system too. The AskED ePollbook guides them step-by-step like a GPS thanks to the AskED Election Decision Support™ system. This allows judges to correctly process voters regardless of the voter’s circumstances.

“The AskED ePollbook has been shown to be easier to use than any other product on the market, and it is designed to be customized for each jurisdiction so that it meets each customer’s needs. This saves election authorities both time and money while improving the voter experience.” said Robis Elections President David Davoust.

About Robis Elections, Inc.

Robis Elections, Inc. is an Illinois company that has provided innovative technology solutions to jurisdictions for more than 18 years. The AskED® product line from Robis provides election workers with the ability to give out accurate, consistent information quickly and to solve problems in the field with “just in time” training and answers. AskED® election management tools provide election officials with up-to-date information about the state of the election all day long. The AskED® product line includes the AskED® Problem Solver, the AskED® ePollbook, AskED® Early Voting, AskED® Online Pollworker Training System, AskED® Surveyor, the AskED® Election Help Desk and the AskED® Troubleshooter.

Contact Information

Robis Elections software is used on over 50,000 locations across the county. Robis’s home office is at 1751 S. Naperville Road, Suite 104, Wheaton, Illinois 60189. For more information, visit www.GoAskED.com or e-mail info@robis.net, or call 630-752-0220 (office).