They are 930 having arrived.

The meeting of the legislation and intergovernment relations committee of the Cook County Board of Commissioners will come to order.

And Lynn, would you please take the roll?

Thank you, sir.

Commissioner Aguilar.

Thank you.

Commissioner Naya.

Present.

Commissioner Daly.

Commissioner Degnan.

Commissioner Gaynor.

Commissioner Laurie.

Present.

Commissioner McCasco is excused.

Commissioner Miller.

Commissioner Moore is excused.

Commissioner Marita.

Commissioner Marita is present participating remotely.

Commissioner Kevin Morrison.

Commissioner Sean Morrison.

Commissioner Scott is excused.

Present.

Or you're connected.

Thank you, sir.

Gotcha.

Commissioner Scott is present and participating remotely.

Soundroom, if you can turn down the team's volume, that would help us a lot.

Thank you.

So Commissioner Scott is present participating remotely.

Commissioner Stamps is excused.

Commissioner Trevor.

Trevor Here.

Commissioner Trevor is present.

Commissioner Vasquez.

Thank you.

And Mr.

Chair is present.

Chairman, let me revisit those that did not respond.

I have excuse absences for McCasco, more stamps, and all others are present.

You do have a quorum.

Thank you.

Um Chairman Daly moves to allow remote participation.

Seconded by Commissioner Lowry.

Commissioner Aguilar, your vote.

Commissioner Aguilar is Commissioner Naya.

Aye.

Commissioner Naya is aye.

Commissioner Daly.

Commissioner Degnan.

Aye.

Commissioner Gaynor.

Aye.

Commissioner Laurie.

Aye.

Previous votes were all aye.

Commissioner McCaskill is excused.

Commissioner Miller.

Aye.

Commissioner Miller is aye.

Commissioner Moore is excused.

Commissioner Marita.

Commissioner Marita is aye.

Commissioner Kevin Morrison.

Commissioner Kevin Morrison is aye.

Commissioner Sean Morrison.

Commissioner Shawn Morrison is aye.

Commissioner Scott.

Aye.

Commissioner Scott is aye.

Previous votes were all aye.

Commissioner Stamps is excused.

Commissioner Trevor.

Aye.

Commissioner Trevor is aye.

Commissioner Vasquez.

Aye.

Commissioner Vasquez is aye.

Mr.

Chairman.

Mr.

Chairman is aye.

Mr.

Chairman is aye.

We have 14 ayes and three excused absences for McCasco.

Moore and Stamps.

Sir.

Motion passes.

Yes, sir.

We do have public speakers registered.

And those authorized to provide public testimony shall not use vulgar, abuse of discriminatory, profane, or otherwise inappropriate language when addressing the body.

Failure to act appropriately or fail to hear adhere to the time requirements may result in expulsion from the meeting and/or disqualify the person from providing future testimony.

Speakers that I received in this order.

Celia Peterson.

Come up to the public speaking mic, please.

Jessica Jackson.

Moose Stamps.

Tell us your name and you can begin.

Can you repeat that for me, please?

Uh-huh.

Please state your name and go ahead and start.

Hi, my name is Celia Peterson.

I'm the founder and CEO.

So Miss Pierce, hold on one second.

Soundroom, uh public speaking mic, if you can turn it up, please.

And pull it down closer to you.

There you go.

Let's try again.

Start from the beginning.

I am Celicia Peterson, founder and CEO of Hugo Chow Non-For-Profit.

I'm speaking on behalf of the Youth Advisory Council and why it's important.

They should be at the legislation table.

They know what they need.

They know what they want.

They know what's going on in their communities.

Their voices matter.

We engage as an organization to have their voices heard.

And we work with political officials to go back and tell them what our youth need and what they want.

So it's very important to get their input to save our city and our state.

And that's it for me.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Our next speaker, please state your name.

Um I didn't expect Commissioner Terra Stamps to be here this morning or Commissioner Stanley more.

But I came specifically because Commissioner Britton is this committee.

And he's legislative litigation.

So once again, I'm going to tell you, get your judges.

Get your corrupt public administrators that are stealing black people's property.

Now, while Tara Stamps, Commissioner Tara Stamps ran to the Chicago Tribune with this hit piece on Chicago Flips Red, saying about how they don't like the comments that we make at the podium and finding it to be harassing.

When we're here talking about how you all are stealing our property.

And then at the same time while she does that, the Chicago Sun Times then writes an article released yesterday talking about how Cook County is going to be liable to play to pay millions of dollars back.

A federal judge ruled that the property tax county sales, property sales, are unconstitutional.

And that you all have been stealing these people's properties, just like I said.

Just like how you're trying to steal mine through the probate process.

So get ready for another flood of money that you all are going to pay out.

And then have the audacity to put in the newspaper that they ran to Commissioner Daily with an email about it.

Are you kidding me?

As many times as you had opportunity to go to that same daily center that's named after your family and tell them to stop cheating in the circuit court.

One minute.

And she's gonna run and put your name in it.

Get ready for the next flood of billions of dollars that y'all gonna pay out.

Because the band-aid is gonna keep on ripping off because you keep on committing fraud, keep on committing perjury.

You keep on stealing black people's property, and you keep doing it.

He's the Kingpin.

He's stealing all the real estate.

Why they putting it over there by the Obama Center and everything over there, and you know it.

Chicago flips red, coming for every last one of y'all.

Go print that.

Our next speaker, come to the podium, tell us your name.

Good morning, commissioners.

My name is Mo Stamps.

I'm the director of transitional housing for an organization called Ignite.

Uh uh Ignite throughout the city service, homeless youth ages 10 to 26.

Um, the reason I am standing today is to speak on behalf of the youth advisory council and to echo the sentiment of most of our youth throughout the city of Chicago who are experiencing homelessness and the idea of youth engagement and the fact that that they deserve a voice at the table.

Essentially, the work that we do at Ignite not only affords young people the ability to receive safe and stable housing, but they also receive a number of resources such as employment resources.

They also receive mental health resources, and of course, what directs our services, what directs the work that we do every single day is that our young people actually inform the work that we do.

So we want this, we want the board of commissioners, we want the entire city of Chicago to consider and to continue to consider that youth engagement and youth voice at the table is very important.

In fact, we brought one of our young people here with us today to talk about why that's very important throughout the city.

Thank you for your time.

Thank you.

I'm part of Bring the Mike a little closer to your sound room again.

Um my name is D'Angelo Stahlmeyer, and I'm part of the Ignite program.

But recently, um I feel like Ignite is a place that give us a second chance.

Um, helps the youth grow, get back on their feet.

Um, helps them find jobs.

I started it from nothing, and the program alone gave me every opportunity to um give me a second chance at life to um be a better person for myself.

It gave me stable, a stable job.

I started as intern from intern from part-time to now full-time now, and I just want to say that programs like this give us different opportunities to show who we really are from the outside, also on the also as on the inside.

Um that's really good.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you, Chairman.

That concludes our list of speakers.

Thank you, madam secretary.

Chair will now return the motion to approve item 261434, the minutes of the meeting held on April 15th, 2026.

That motion is made by Vice Chair Degan.

Second by Commissioner Nye.

All those in favor signify by saying aye.

Aye.

Opposed nay the chair of the ayes have it.

Chair will now change a motion to approve item 261188.

The appointment of Olive Brown is a resident commissioner of the Housing Authority of Cook County.

Per Hack's establishing ordinance, it is required that the board have one resident commissioner, and Olive is the nominee of HACK, and has been recommended to us.

That motion is made by Vice Chair Degan, seconded by Commissioner Anaya.

I believe we have Olive on the line.

And would you like to uh tell us why you think you would like to serve in that role?

Ms.

Brown.

Hi, my name is Oliver Brown, and I'm a scatter side tenant who have been connected to this community since 1998.

Over the years of my life have become deeply rooted in Evanston and this running areas that I've developed a genuine passion for working with others, solving problems, and serving my community.

We care integrity.

I'm a positive person with strong work ethic and sincere committee committee.

Commitment to helping others.

My experience as a mother and grandmother, long with professional background, has strengthened my ability to problem solve thoughts, decisions, and work with people from all walks of life.

I would be honored to bring my experience, dedication, and community-minded spirit to the position.

I'm eager for the opportunity to serve, contribute, and continue supporting the people and family in our community with compassion and respect.

Because of my longstanding comm connection to the community to the committee to the comic community.

I'm sorry.

I couldn't get the word out.

I'm familiar with the needs of the HACC tenants as well as the rules and regulations that guide us.

My relationship with local churches and community leaders have also shown me how to profile powerful collaborate with them.

And work with the needs of uh other people.

And um that's why I think that I should be able to work well with with um with the role that's being asked for me to perform.

Thank you, Ms.

Brown.

Any questions for the nominee?

Seeing none, the motion on the floor is to approve item 261188.

Roll call, please.

Thank you, sir.

Commissioner Aguilar, your voice, sir.

Commissioner Aguilar is aye.

Commissioner Anaya.

And I as aye.

And congratulations, Ms.

Brown.

Thank you for your um willingness to serve.

Commissioner Naya is aye.

Commissioner Daly.

Commissioner.

Commissioner Daly is aye.

Vice Chair Degnan.

Aye.

Commissioner Degnet is aye.

Commissioner Gaynor.

Commissioner Gaynor is absent.

Commissioner Laurie.

I'm already saying aye.

Commissioner Laurie is aye.

Commissioner McCaskill is excused.

Commissioner Miller.

Miller, aye.

Commissioner Miller is aye.

Commissioner Moore is excused.

Commissioner Marita.

Morita Aye, and thank you for serving.

Commissioner Marita is aye.

Commissioner Kevin Morrison.

Commissioner Kevin Morrison is aye.

Commissioner Shall Morrison.

Commissioner Shawn Morrison is aye.

Commissioner Scott.

Aye.

Commissioner Scott is aye.

Commissioner Stamps is excused.

Commissioner Trevor.

Commissioner Trevor is aye.

Commissioner Vasquez.

Aye.

Commissioner Vasquez is aye.

Commissioner Gaynor is aye.

Thank you.

Mr.

Chairman.

Aye.

Mr.

Chairman is aye.

Chairman, we have 14 ayes.

Three excused absent.

Commissioner McCasco.

Commissioner Moore.

Commissioner Stamps, sir.

Motion passes.

Um congratulations, Ms.

Brown, and you'll be official as of Thursday during the full board meeting.

The next motion will be item 261017, a resolution recognizing the importance of engaged youth to shape policy and build opportunity in honor of Cook County Youth Day.

That motion is veiled by Vice Chair Lowry, seconded by Commissioner Degnan.

Commissioner Lowry, would you like to address this matter?

Chairman, does this item have a substitute?

Or is that old?

Substitute chair.

Yes.

Okay.

Um I move to accept the substitute.

Move by Commissioner Lowry, seconded by Commissioner Daly.

All those in favor of accepting the substitute said by saying aye.

Aye.

Opposed nay, append the chair of the eyes have it.

We now move then the full resolution.

So moved.

Uh Vice Chair Lowry.

Chairman Daly seconds.

And now would you like to address this matter?

Thank you, Chair.

Sorry.

So I'd like to speak to this item.

It's my proposed resolution recognizing the importance of engaging youth to share policy and to build their opportunities.

And it is forwarded in honor of Cook County Youth Day.

First, let me also thank all the public speakers today who have addressed this item.

You know, as we sit here, over five million residents of Cook County, 31% of our residents are under the age of 27, 25 percent are under the age of 21.

Uh as I noted, uh, this is inspired by Youth Day, which uh first occurred here at Cook County uh based on the vote of of this board and led by Commissioner Moore as well as Commissioner Dennis Deere.

That was March of 2019, and it was at that point that we passed a resolution establishing Youth Day here at Cook County.

So inspired by this and in recognition that youth across Cook County face today a myriad of issues directly affecting their mental, uh physical and behavioral health, including violence, adverse childhood experiences, health care disparity, food deserts, lack of economic opportunities, and many more issues.

Uh it is time for us to not only see them, but to give them voice.

We need to build a setting where uh our youth across Cook County can share their common goals while better understanding their differences.

A setting which recognizes that youth do not want to be told what to say, but instead want us to listen to what needs to be heard.

Cook County is invested in building the next generation of Cook County leaders through education, through listening, through discussion, through policy development, uh all of which uh will lead to uh a better Cook County uh both today and tomorrow.

To answer the call, the county board president, uh the Cook County Board of Commissioners, Justice Advisory Council, and other offices under the President recognized that successful childhood um childhoods lead to successful neighborhoods and that the experiences of our most vulnerable children uh may affect um their lives as young adults.

JEC intends to engage a specialized uh technical assistance group uh who will serve as a third party organization uh who has demonstrated experience in youth leadership development and civic engagement to assist in the administration convening and coordination of our youth council and our youth engagement plan.

The youth engagement plan will be designed to formalize youth voice within Cook County government and ensure that young people, including those from historically under-resourced communities, are seen, heard, and valued in policies and initiatives that affect their lives and ours.

The youth council members will address priorities aligned with the Board of Commissioners, including but not limited limited to public safety, youth justice reform, economic and community development, health and human services, environmental sustainability, infrastructure, and civic engagement.

In developing the youth plan, the diversity, equity and inclusion program leadership intends to engage the Cook County Board of Commissioners to gain our individual perspectives on the formation of this county.

The Youth Council is intended to convene in the summer of 2027, following the development of the youth engagement plan.

The youth council is intended to engage 20 young people age 14 to 21 across Cook County, including Chicago neighborhoods and surrounding suburbs, and will be drawn from diverse backgrounds.

The inaugural youth council will strengthen Cook County government's capacity to receive and respond to concerns of our youth across all county districts in ways that shape policy and practice and in ways that strengthen partnerships across the county.

I urge an I vote by all.

Thank you, Vice Chair.

Commissioner Deggan is recognized.

Thank you, Chair, and um thank you to Commissioner Lowry for making the efforts to allow a more administrative process to engage youth.

I think when we look at youth, the first thing we think of is not always that they are civically engaged because I don't know that there's enough education and curricula in schools to foster that.

So I'm excited about this.

I have a couple questions.

The first one is I have a list of um uh characteristics and things that and um categories of things that we would engage the youth council on.

Where does technology fall?

I think a a really large part in the press of what we're hearing is that there's a lot of parents and adults that are concerned about phone usage, um, requiring kids to brick their phones, and um, I mean it's kind of like a funny meme that the older that you get, the less engaged you are with technology, and the younger folks are really good with it.

So I think technology is really a cornerstone of what the youth do well, but it's also really dangerous.

And I think having that youth council appine on the use of technology where they'd like to see it go would be really important characteristic.

So, how do you feel about that?

Commissioner, I concur, and I think it's so important because we also know and we've seen the effects of cyber bullying on our youth.

So this uh that's an example of the type of uh issue that we will be discussing with each commissioner, and that's an example of uh one of the components of the uh engagement plan which will be prepared over the course of the next year.

But it's absolutely vital to this effort, and uh I thank you for your words, but I also look forward to having our follow-up meeting so we can discuss your thoughts relative to the youth council in greater detail.

Great.

My second question is when we had first discussed this, we had talked about the number of people on the youth council and how they will be selected.

I think it's really important to pull people as you had mentioned in the resolution from across county, including Chicago neighborhoods.

So is the intent to really pull one person from each commissioner district?

I think it's great when a number of different youth get together, they meet different people from different backgrounds throughout Cook County.

It would be a really unique opportunity for these youth to develop excuse me to develop lasting friendships, lasting a lasting network for them to use as they move, you know, older in their career paths.

So is the intent to really pull one from each district so it's fully representative of the county.

Commissioner, that has absolutely been my intent, and it's been part of the discussions uh I've had with the many meetings with uh the office of the president with JEC.

Um, and I think that's also a very important component uh that we work through and we discuss with the third party organization that we ultimately um select to facilitate and actually run the council on a daily basis.

But I would like in my my vision is for us to have true representation from every district, and to your point, not just to ensure that uh we engage in better governance as Cook County Commissioners, but I also think we need leaders in our respective districts outside of this chamber.

So that is my goal.

Sounds great.

All right.

Well, I'm an eye on this.

I just think it's really important that you know we'll receive the benefit of having youth opinions.

Um, but I think it's also great for them to have the benefit of lasting friendships and uh a career network that spans throughout Cook County that they can use as they move forward in their career.

So as long as the commissioners themselves are brought into the decision making process and we have the ability to you know say these are kids that we have taught taught in our own ways or have come into contact with our offices, or we've heard our leaders in their community that they are all all um available to be eligible for this program.

So thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you, Commissioner.

Commissioner Miller.

Thank you.

First, I'd like to be added as a co-sponsor.

And leave leave to add all.

Leave all on the floor.

Thank you.

Um the other thing I wanted to just bring up is that we already have a great um bench, if you will, of youth from our interns.

I'm wondering if there's any way to include the interns that we get from MICFA as well as CETA.

I know we had CETA interns year before last or uh including this year, get them involved as kind of um mentors to the mentors.

Thank you, Commissioner, and it's a great point.

And we've actually had some preliminary meetings with MICVA as we go forward and finalize our third-party relationship.

Uh, obviously, we'll share that.

Uh, but I absolutely embrace what what you just shared.

Thank you.

Commissioner Gaynor, sorry.

Thanks.

I love this idea, Bill.

I think it's great.

I think any time you can get young people to be in charge of something is really helpful and good practice.

Um I know that you have had a little bit of interaction with the Chicago Apprentice Network, but I would really encourage that to be on the list of engagement opportunities.

You know, it's um young people, there's several hundred now non-college graduates who are getting into different types of careers, but they've built a whole network and they have a LinkedIn page and they have events where they network with each other and bring in, you know, their the adults who work in the companies that they're working in, but also others, and it's expanding, you know.

I wish we would do more of that apprentice type stuff at the county outside of the trades, in addition to the trades, obviously.

And so um I'd love to put that on your list as you're considering how to go because um obviously the long-term goal of all these young people is to get a great job and to be exposed to lots of different things.

So I'd love to make that kind of that workforce piece a component so they get exposed because you could have young people come to some of the networking sessions and really get a view of what their future is gonna look like.

Um and then on the selection piece, I hadn't thought of it until Commissioner Dagnan raised it.

Will it be more like the women's commission where we um choose a uh a young person to be a part of it and then they participate in a variety of things or how does that work?

At this point, that is certainly an option.

Um the other option I think which will be presented and based on some preliminary conversations with MICFA.

Um, if in fact we go forward with them as the third party, they may have some suggestions as well.

So it's going to be a collaborative effort.

But what's important to embrace is collaborative means all of us will have say in this, and all of this will be considered as we create the engagement plan.

Nice.

When do you plan on uh when will that all have when will this all kind of come to fruition?

So it's gonna start immediately after Thursday.

And uh the goal is to launch the council a year from now in 2027.

Oh we're gonna do this right, we're gonna do it in a measured way, but we're gonna do it that way so that it's sustainable and generational.

Okay.

Thank you.

Seeing no further questions or comments.

The motion on the floor is to approve item 2611.

Nope.

Let me go back.

261017.

Uh roll call.

Approve as a substitute.

Substitute.

My apologies.

Moved by Commissioner Laurie, second by Commissioner Daly.

Thank you, sir.

Commissioner Aguilar.

Aye.

Commissioner Aguilar's vote is aye.

Commissioner Naya.

Hi.

Commissioner Naya is aye.

Commissioner Daly.

Aye.

Commissioner Daly is aye.

Commissioner Degnan.

Commissioner Degnan is I.

Commissioner Gaynor.

Commissioner Gainer's eye.

Commissioner Laurie.

Aye.

Commissioner Laurie is aye.

Commissioner McCaskill is absent.

Commissioner Miller.

Mayor I.

Commissioner Miller's I.

Commissioner Moore is excused absent.

So is McCasco excused absent.

Commissioner Marita.

Morita, I please add me as a co-sponsor.

Commissioner Marita is aye and will be added as a co-sponsor.

Commissioner Kevin Morrison.

Kevin Morrison I.

Commissioner Kevin Morrison is aye.

Commissioner Sean Morrison.

Commissioner Sean Morrison is that.

Commissioner Scott.

I and I'd like to be a co-sponsor as well.

Thank you.

Commissioner Scott is I and added as a co-sponsor.

Commissioner Stamps is excused.

Commissioner Trevor.

Aye.

Commissioner Trevor is aye.

Commissioner Vasquez.

Aye.

Aye.

Mr.

Chairman is I.

14 ayes, three excused absence.

They are McCasco, Moore, and Stamps, sir.

Motion passes.

Thank you, Commissioner Lowry.

It's an exciting concept, and I look forward to seeing it flushed out over the next year.

Chairman Allen motion to approve it at 261147.

Ed, do you want to come in?

So move.

Uh resolution uh calling on the clerk's office to appear before the legislation committee to provide an update on the March 17th election that has passed and the new election initiatives that are coming up for November and beyond.

That motion is made by Commissioner Aguilar, seconded by Commissioner Vice Chair Degnan.

And Ed Mikulowski will be representing clerk Mr.

Chair.

Okay.

Mr.

Chair on the motion.

Um after meeting with the clerk's office.

Um it is I thought very appropriate, and also in light of some most recent decisions, that the clerk would come and address the improvements that they have made.

It is very interesting and really informative on the progress that is occurred under the current clerk, especially with the new lens technology.

So it's very informative for all the members, and I look forward to this testimony.

Would the chair prefer a deferral until the time?

She's gonna do it.

She's a one-minute video, and then we'll speak.

Okay.

All right.

We we also this might doesn't have to be the last conversation we have regarding these matters.

No, I think what we're going to do is uh also have the city come in.

I reach out to them to discuss the coordination.

But I thought after meeting with the clerk's office on other items when they brought this out, I thought it was to be a very informative for the entire board.

So we'll keep it uh approve it as and then move forward.

Thank you.

All right.

So uh now that we've had the motion moved and seconded, we'll uh first introduce the two presenters from the clerk's office, and then you have a presentation, and then we can have questions.

Is that sound reasonable?

Sounds good.

All right, thank you.

Appreciate it.

Go ahead and introduce yourself to begin.

Thank you.

Uh Chairman Edmund Michelowski, Deputy Clerk of Elections Dear Arch Patrick, uh CTO of knowing, uh Project Partner with Co County and uh Deputy Club McCloskey.

All right, you can begin the presentation.

One sec one second, the sound is not coming.

Apologize.

As clerk, I am incredibly excited to share some very important updates about the administration of elections in Cook County and the progress that we have made over this past year with your continued support.

The first update that I want to share is the introduction of a new technology called election lens.

This real-time analytics platform was introduced for the very first time during the March primary, and it will be a tool that we will be using for many elections to come.

Election lens gives us a live countywide view of what's happening across our entire election system as it unfolds, including turnout, mail ballot updates, and polling place activity.

We have also rolled out a smart ballot drop box system to strengthen security and accountability for the vote by mail process.

We've expanded mail ballot tracking so we can follow ballots through the poll system and quickly spot any slowdowns.

And we have implemented GPS tracking on our voting equipment and supply carriers, giving us real-time visibility into election day operations across every corner of suburban Cook County.

We also have started using AI and our call center systems to help ensure that issues coming in on election day are categorized more accurately and resolved more efficiently.

Now here's the key.

Thank you again, Chairman.

Uh so with what the clerk was mentioning is that the election lens program is an extension of our voter registration and election management system.

We've really become forward thinking in as much as we visualize all of the data that's coming in on a map.

So if you could imagine that most people in this room would solicit uh some sort of political platform to help leverage their ability to run for office.

Well, Cook County now, as Cook County has the very cutting edge of all of all technology related to elections.

We have real-time voting.

You can you can visualize on a map who's voted early, who's got their mail ballot, who didn't return their mail ballot, who didn't select the party for their mail ballot.

Um, all of that right now is not available because it's in it's in a beta test right now, but you can imagine that um it's pretty exciting that a government agency is at the as at the cutting edge technology where we are.

So now um Diraj is going to go through some of the the platforms.

One of the the points that we could look at is we ran an early voting uh day for all of the high schools.

So we had 25 suburban high schools that had their own uh election going on during early voting at their high school.

We did this with a partnership with the Chicago Bears, and we had 25 high schools in the spring.

We're gonna do 50 this fall, and who knows where it's gonna go from there.

I mean, our goal with this is really to allow all of the students to become the ecosystem of elections, running it from the front end, the back end, the call centers, the tech review, understanding the security, the needs, uh, cybersecurity, the civics behind it.

So we're very excited about that program, and that can also be displayed on the lens here.

So, Drash.

Sure.

Thank you, Deputy Clerk.

Um, I'm gonna go through a quick demo and happy to take questions afterwards.

Uh, this the screen you see right now is the voter turnout screen, the light of the color, the the um the the more uh turnout uh check-ins we've had um across early voting and uh uh election day.

I do want to uh draw your attention down here.

Uh this is what the deputy club talked about, the high school voting where we had over 1200 uh check-ins within high schools uh on that day.

And you can see voting per day uh and the the highest early voting day was actually the day before uh the election.

If I go down, we also see uh uh election check-ins per hour uh increasing throughout throughout the day.

Uh going down here, we can also see who's voting on in early voting as well as election day.

And as you can see, um more more mature people uh vote more often.

However, on election day, um uh people caught up uh uh in from the 45 to 64 range.

Going down, we also know turnout by party, and this is not by registered party, this is by the ballot uh that was cast um over there.

The one thing I will show you is you can you can go down to townships and look at each precinct and see the turnout by precinct too and and uh see the left panel update accordingly.

So what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna switch to mail ballot tracking.

And actually it was showing that you could imagine that.

So now we're calculating real-time check-ins.

So this this mapping technology allows all of us to know who is checking in where, and there's uh some other uh benefits as we're looking at uh the technology in the precincts and the polling places and the early voting sites to make sure that it's working well.

But if you want to jump into the to the mail voting, so we have a very complex mail voting system.

Um received and sent all over the United States, and with this technology and in concert with as the clerk showed you the mail ballot drop boxes, we're gonna be able to take a mail ballot when it comes back in and potentially have all of those ballots counted by election day with the new technology.

We'll know where they are and uh Durage will show.

Um as you can see there, if you can uh there's uh just over 117,000 mail ballots set out sent out.

Uh 53,000 right now are still sitting at the at the homes of the people that it was sent out to, and 61,000 came back.

Uh I do want to zoom out and you can see uh where Cook County residents uh had their mail ballots sent out to, whether it's Juneau, Alaska, um it seems like a lot of uh a lot of Cook County residents like to uh go to Florida uh during the cold, I suppose.

Uh and so you can see what you can see where the mail ballots actually went out, and this allows you to also figure out our are a bunch of ballots getting stuck at a certain sudden area, a certain zip code or a certain post office.

And I know that's something that uh that uh the deputy club was very interested in.

Right.

So we could operate operationalize this data too.

So when somebody calls, when one of your constituent calls and asks about the mail ballot, it doesn't matter who's taking the call.

The lens is a dashboard, meaning that you're not gonna manage or change the data within it.

But anyone taking a call can tell, you know, exactly where your ballot is, Chairman, where is it, who's got it, where's it going, and that way it's not transfer transfer voicemail, which just frustrates so many people when they're trying to figure out where their ballot is.

Um and again, this is uh this is just a part of our overall voter registration and election management system that's being um that's being managed through this.

We've we thought about this concept a couple years ago, and we just went for it.

So if you want to continue with uh Sure.

Uh the third tab I'm gonna show you is polling place right in us.

Basically, polling place readiness is how well is that polling place uh functioning at any given time?

And this is real time.

We check the batteries, uh we sync with the battery levels at a polling place to make sure it's over a threshold that Cook County wants for each of its poll pads.

We check to see when was the last time it synced to make sure that check-ins are coming through.

And uh what you like is what's what you what's showing here, which is green everywhere.

But I will I do want to go into a a red where you can you can see uh I mean the elections uh not happening right now, so it is red there right now, but uh you can see what's wrong.

Uh is the poll pad not sinking, is is the uh is the uh um battery not high enough?

And as well as you can look at the you can see the poll workers there and give them a call and say, is something going on uh at your phone place?

Do you need some help?

Um and uh and address it before it becomes something that is much bigger that shows up in the media.

And we're adding more and more tech uh APIs to this dashboard.

So we have real-time tracking, GPS tracking of all of our equipment.

Um and it's just gonna it's just gonna make it much easier for us to get it right.

We're gonna make sure that when the equipment is delivered, it'll be geofenced to that precinct.

It'll notify us because they're gonna be using an AI component, an internal AI component similar to AWS bedrock, to make sure that we have data, right?

But it's working for us.

It's working for all of us.

Voters are gonna feel more confident in the transparency, I think is just very beneficial for all of us.

And any questions?

Uh Chairman Daly.

Thank you.

Mr.

Chairman A was happy to put this together and just a couple of questions.

In reference, and we discussed this earlier.

Someone applies for an absentee ballot.

He the they either come in and do early vote or come vote vote in person.

Or the ballots not counted at all because it's not.

Are you able to say specifically what percent of absentee ballots were not re what we're not returned?

Whether approximately 61,000 uh absolutely that were not returned or not voted.

Okay.

And in reference to the post office, because I know this occurred in some spots.

That the bat ballot is at the post office.

And for whatever reason, it is not getting to the voter.

What is our what do we do at that time?

So thanks to this for November, what we're gonna be able to do is we're gonna be able to contact our individuals within the post office if we can't get a direct resolution because every morning we're gonna see those trouble spots and we're gonna be able to forward think and and manage that conversation, and then we're gonna communicate with the voter and give them their options.

Do you want another mail ballot?

Maybe there's not timeliness for mail ballot.

Perhaps you should go early vote.

Here's the early voting locations.

Here's the time, the wait at all those early voting locations.

So we want to give people options to make sure that they know.

I mean, as odd as it is, sometimes uh a mail ballot will go from Carroll Stream to Tennessee for some reason.

It will be sitting in a in a site there.

But thanks to this, we'll know where it is and we'll know how to manage that.

And the real-time information is that who will that be available?

So every time something goes through the post office, there are scans.

All of those scans then are loaded right within this system.

So we have the most up-to-date system all the way to the carrier route where the uh postal carriers will pick up the mail and and go out for delivery, and um all the way through on the on the reverse as it comes back to us.

The information by township, what areas are voting?

Is that available to the public or is that a general?

It's not available to the public at this at this point based on the uh the bandwidth of what where we're at, we'll uh attempt to potentially make it available to the county board and to uh the uh the election authority, but based on the the size of this, it's the scale of it, it's uh not of we're not gonna be able to do that.

Well, thank you for your progress and your your continued hard work.

Thank you.

Thank you, Chairman.

Commissioner Miller.

Thank you, Chairman.

And thank you to your team for this presentation.

It's very good.

I just have to share a little story.

Since my son is abroad right now, he got an email saying that he could vote by email that I didn't believe him.

I was like, no.

Uh let me see the email that you got.

So I called immediately, and your staff was perfect and nice, and just so happened she was working on his voting at that moment.

So you guys have a great team in place.

Everybody is on top of everything.

It wasn't because Commissioner Miller called, it was just a mama call in, like, is this true?

Can they vote by email?

And um, so that was very good to know and very receptive, very on top of it and seamless process.

Commissioner, Commissioner Trevor.

Thank you, Chair, and thank you for this report.

And I just have a couple of questions about the implementation of this.

Um first of all, uh uh is this something that uh will in some version be made available to the public via your website or is this simply for the service.

On that note, we really have to look at two things that are very critical on this.

One is the uh personal identifiable information, and then the the size of the file.

So um right now information is available if you have a D1 filed on the state, you can have you can scrape data from our website from our from our data of who's voting when we'd like to look at that.

Yeah, so we'd like to look at that that first if somebody is a D1 organization to potentially I mean, realistically, we could monetize this for the county if there are D1 organizations that want the very best opportunity to know as they're cutting turf the way they want to, walking per household, who's voted early, who hasn't, all of the history will be at your fingertips.

I mean, this will be a better technology than anything is commercially available right now, but that would be something to discuss with this with your with this body and with uh to make sure that PII is also important.

Uh sort of similar to that.

Uh would this technology be available to people in my office to deal with questions from constituents?

Or is this something we would need to refer to the uh clerk's office?

We we would look at um what potential uh um legal requirement would be for sharing this data.

And then finally, do you have a timetable for that?

Uh we would probably like to begin those conversations this summer.

Thank you.

Thank you, Commissioner.

Commissioner Sean Morrison.

Thank you.

Two of those have been answered.

But uh just to clarify, when when you're when you're referencing that um an individual and organization or campaign, well, an organization or a campaign that would be registered D1 can access this.

We're talking about political committees and or candidates.

Correct.

So it's not necessarily public facing, at least at this time, but certainly a candidate can get that in information live time as well as a political organization.

Right.

And then we would have to so the hosting, the bandwidth to host this data is is fairly extravagant.

So we would want to see what those costs are, how to offset those costs and how to possibly monetize this positively for the county itself.

Have there been any um since our last briefing?

Uh I think two years ago, last cycle.

Has there been any increases or any updates?

Uh best practices that have been put in place against any type of cyber fraud or anything of those types of things.

I'm trying to think of the generalized questions that we often do get from the public, you know, based around these types of things.

With us today is Rahu Patel, who's our PhD in cybersecurity.

Rahul, do you want to talk about?

I know we have uh have two servers, one at our operations center, both, but Rahoe would definitely if I could just say one thing, Raoul first.

I think I I think it's important that you know from a commissioner's standpoint, but for the general public, the often asked questions, you know, the FAQs that we typically get in.

And even on a uh even from the political apparatus is the questions that are based around that.

So I think it would do us, it would do us a service, certainly from the clerk's office that manages this.

And I love chairman's idea about about continuing this again and having both the city and the county here.

Since we're in a unique we're in one of those unique voting zones where we have a county election board system as well as a municipal election board system, we're one of very, very few throughout the country that have that dynamic here.

So it probably would be a better idea what that we just defer this hearing when we're done to today and recall it having them here as well.

That's one thing so that the general public if folks can ask.

But if you can speak around the cyber, I think that's one that the general public has.

I'm fairly convinced that our system works well, by the way.

Uh, but you know, those are one of the those are one of the questions that we often get, you know.

Um even ironically, you know, and and by the way, that's a nonpartisan issue, depending on where you're at, what state you're in.

If you're in a heavy blue state, they're saying that you know, that there's fraud occurring on their side.

If you're in a hard our red state, the same thing occurs.

So it's a it's a mutually partisan question uh that folks ask.

So I think as any election board government that we can, the the most robust way in which we could clarify that and point that out to folks and give confidence to the voters at the end of the day is that they need confidence that they're that the elections are uh legit, I think just helps the general public.

Thanks.

Would you identify yourself first?

Yes.

Um I'm Rahul Patil, director of cybersecurity for the clerk's office.

Uh chairman and uh commissioners, thank you for the opportunity.

Um so the lands, the way we are implementing currently is it is only available through the county network.

And uh the cybersecurity standards that we are putting in is equivalent to how we are operating the poll pads, uh, which is the highest security uh level.

And we have been operating that for three years, and the same level of security is being implemented for the lands as well.

Um and extending uh the earlier uh discussion um that how uh uh uh deputy clerk was suggesting that for uh availability to the general public, we may have to change that, and that's one of the things that we need to discuss internally.

So currently it is only available to the uh county clerk and the county network um uh with the highest level of security.

Uh this summer we are also going to run a mock uh election uh with LANs uh to see how end-to-end process works, and that will also give us uh some additional ideas.

But we have been monitoring this implementation for the last year and a half, and all indicators uh are showing that it is a safest implementation.

Uh just uh just to follow up uh since you're at the mic, sir.

Um since this is available through the county system, we coordinate with the our Department of Bureau, uh the Bureau of Technology to further define and ensure data security.

Correct.

So uh all of our implementation we follow uh Tom Lynch um uh Charles ruling and Hema Sundarum's uh guidelines and policies.

Uh we meet them uh uh meet with them once a month every month uh to discuss the IT and a security operation.

Uh and we have been discussing the security policy and implementation plan for all three uh that we discussed so far, LANs um uh AI implementation as well as the um uh uh the election equipment monitoring throughout the election day.

Um and Challas Charles rulings team has been supporting us for several years, eight to ten years, um covering uh all election day and election cycle, monitoring from the cybersecurity point of view, and we don't we did not have any issues in the last eight years.

Thank you, sir.

Commissioner Aguilar.

Thank you, Chairman.

Um I just you know, I have a question about mailing in ballot.

It's still four percent statistical chance to mail to that reach is destiny.

So mailing in ballots as a place when you know out of out of state students or military duty due to illness or is serving time.

But there is early voting.

And there's weeks before the election you're given the opportunity to vote and it opened on weekend.

So there is no reason to mail in the ballot if you're helping us to walk in, walk you know, uh get up a little early and go to vote.

Uh I'm still concerned about the four percent error in mailing ballots that uh those votes may not be uh guessed.

But other than that, uh you know I'm glad to see that we're advancing on uh and uh you know the uh technology on voting.

So that's basically my concern and the mailing in ballots.

Thank you.

Thank you, Commissioner.

Um I guess my most of my questions were answered.

Um I assume that if we'll have to there's a lot of things to to be done if we do have public facing concept, including language access too.

Is I would would that be correct?

Yes.

Okay.

Um my other, I guess.

On the language access, we have enhanced uh greatly.

So we we use a machine learning program now through uh we were using Google, now we're with Microsoft Azure, is that right, Rahul?

And so we've created election dictionaries, you know, that are just getting better and better because we have um advocates that manage every election to make sure that every time that there is a word or a phrase that that isn't being translated appropriately.

We're just making um our election dictionary uh more foolproof and uh it refreshes live, so we're not just translating a document.

The ballots and ballot questions go through a lot more uh rigorous review, but um thanks to your assistance, Commissioner.

Uh we're really proud of the work we've done with language access.

In addition, we vote at 130 nursing homes on the Friday before the election day.

We vote in Cook County jail.

We're now voting at 25 to 50 high schools, and it's all because of of your support and your belief in us.

So we really, really thank you.

I also want to thank uh Commissioner Kevin Morrison for the language access work that we did um early on in our tenure.

Um I guess the other brief questions I had were um I think we're still waiting for the Supreme Court decision on late arriving ballots.

Is that correct?

What are we gonna do about that if it comes down against us, which I anticipate?

I would say that we were probably the only election authority in the United States that now with our drop boxes.

If if the ballot hits the drop box, it scans the signature on the exterior, it scans the barcode.

That information comes to our bipartisans and judges that'll be at our operations center.

They'll be able to validate whether that's the right signature and the right ballot.

That ballot comes back to our operations center, gets run through an agillis to open to extract and to vote.

So I think we would be in very good shape that everything coming on election day will be voted on election day and counted.

Um we we had that thanks to uh Chairman Daly a few years ago, talked to us about drop boxes and thankfully both uh the drop boxes and some of these other programs we were able to secure grants to pay for them all as well.

So in the event the Supreme Court determines that ballots arriving by mail after election day would be invalid.

We're just gonna have to say you you should use the drop box because it's gonna be a much easier and to count your vote.

Whereas now you could just drop it in the mail the the day of and it would it might potentially count.

I don't think that necessarily is gonna be the case, depending on what the good folks in Washington do, but let's find out.

And then my last uh comment is gonna be one I started in 2018, uh long time ago.

Um still awfully annoying that you have to look at the city.

Now, luckily, I'm a purely suburban commissioner, so I don't even have to do this, but I have friends who have to figure out if they won or lost.

So it what where what is the status of combining the city and the county in real time?

Um results or an authority.

Uh results.

So uh the results we've been trying to work with the city, but there's been a number of changes within their management group.

Um, and I think just recently.

But the reality is we can do it.

We we know we can do it, you know, and uh we just have to sit down with them and they have to.

Who do I need to call?

I think who might should I I think if you call the chair of the of the Chicago Board of Elections, uh Marisol is one of the most you know kindest, well-read individual.

She chairs the authority, and any executive director or anyone else there that's working for Marisol Fernandez will follow her lead and we will get this done.

I'm gonna ask my staff to set up a conference call.

And by the way, uh one of the other commissioners went to law school with me, so I probably can call him as well.

Okay.

Um Commissioner Kevin Morrison.

Yes.

Uh I I just want to thank you, Ad and uh Clerk Gordon.

Uh it's my understanding you're partnering on May 21st with organizations in my district on a event for our constituents concerning election integrity, but also protecting our voting rights.

So I want to thank you both for making yourself available.

Thank you, Commissioner.

Uh election authority in Illinois with the attorney general to write the declaration against the president's uh executive order, not against per se, but just putting it in realistic terms of what we have to do to protect the election based on that, and uh we'll be presenting that at your at your forum.

Thank you so very much.

See no further questions, Mr.

Chair.

Just to follow up on what you had stated.

I know the combination has been discussed a long time.

There is many as you know, many issues.

We were able to combine the clerk's office and and the recorder's office, but that was internal with the county within the county.

The issue that has arisen in the past is you have two a separate entity that maybe meaning the city does not want to re reimburse the county.

And secondly, you have two pension systems, a pension systems and two different unions.

So I think we should definitely look at it, but I think there's a lot of other issues that were not as easy when we combine the clerk and the recorder.

So that's one of the main issues.

I think we should look at everything uh in cost savings, but if we uh you aren't going to reimburse us, and that's a major issue.

Yeah, and and Chairman Daly makes a very good point, and I may have misstated my comment.

I'm not talking about combining the two.

I'm just want to know if we can find the data on election day.

That's all I'm asking to look into.

I'm not gonna get involved in the other part.

Maybe a second, third term.

Um right.

The motion on the floor.

Oh, do we wish to defer this matter?

You're we're good.

Okay, we're just gonna approve then.

Uh the motion to then is to um to approve or receive and file.

Either is appropriate, sir.

Approved.

Uh that motion is uh was made by Commissioner Aguilar, second by Vice Chair Degan.

It's 261147.

Uh roll call, please.

Thank you, sir.

Commissioner Aguilar, your vote.

Again, I just uh I'm gonna vote aye, but my concern is again that four percent uh chance of ballots never mail in ballots never making it to uh to where it's supposed to be, and uh I'm still concerned about that, but um my vote I just put this for record.

Thank you, sir.

Commissioner Aguilar is aye.

Commissioner Naya is out of the room.

I'm gonna mark her absent for the moment.

Commissioner Daly.

Aye.

Commissioner Daly is aye.

Commissioner Degnan.

Aye.

Commissioner Dagnan is aye.

Commissioner Gaynor.

Is out of the room.

I'm gonna mark her absent for the moment.

Commissioner Laurie.

Aye.

Commissioner McCasco is excused.

Previous votes were aye.

Commissioner Miller.

Miller, aye.

Commissioner Miller is aye.

Commissioner Moore is excused.

Commissioner Marita.

Morita I.

Commissioner Marita is aye.

Commissioner Kevin Morrison.

Thank you, sir.

Commissioner Kevin Morrison is aye.

Commissioner Sean Morrison.

No Morrison, I.

Thank you, sir.

Commissioner Sean Morrison is aye.

Commissioner Scott.

Aye.

Commissioner Scott is aye.

Thank you, sir.

Commissioner Stamps is excused.

Commissioner Trevor.

Aye.

Commissioner Trevor is aye.

Thank you.

Commissioner Vasquez.

Aye.

Commissioner Vasquez is aye.

Mr.

Chairman.

Aye.

Mr.

Chairman is aye.

Mr.

Chairman, those that did not respond.

Commissioner Anaya.

Commissioner Gaynor.

Commissioner McCaskill.

Commissioner Moore.

And Commissioner Stamps are all absent.

You have 12 ayes and five absents.

Motion passes.

And I just as a personal matter, um, I just want to say how much I appreciate Ed the fact you pick up the phone, even on election day.

Um whenever I have a question, and I'm I'm sure all the other commissioners very much appreciate you can continuing on as you have in the past and the the excellent work you do, and I really appreciate it.

Uh there being no further business for this committee.

Uh Vice Chair Degan moves to adjourn, seconded by Vice Chair Lowry.

A lot of vice chairs.

Um all those in favor signify saying aye.

Opposed naip and the chair, the ayes have it.

Thank you.