STILLMAN VALLEY – Ogle County Clerk & Recorder Laura Cook spoke at the Stillman Valley Lions April dinner meeting.
She reported on the information kept in the Recorder’s office, the responsibilities of the County Clerk’s office and information on recent elections. Ogle County has a shortage of candidates (probably because it is pretty much a one-party county). When the Russian hacking was detected, things were shut down pretty quickly. The Russians couldn't affect the vote because the voting machines are not networked and the vote count machine is not hooked up to anything.
Ogle County has 52 precincts and nearly 34,000 registered voters. The cost for running elections is largely fixed at around $113,000 except for a few expenses that can be shared when there are two elections in a year. The result is that the cost for the 2017 Consolidated Election when 7,362 voted (21.99 percent turnout) was $15.34 per vote and the cost for the 2016 General Election when 24,460 voted (72.74 percent turnout) was $4.52 per vote.
