Election authorities stress transparency in lead-up to 2022 midterm elections

CHICAGO (WLS) -- After election deniers falsely claimed irregularities in the 2020 election results, election officials across the country and right here in Illinois are doubling-down on transparency and inviting the public to see how secure our voting system really is.

At Thursday's public test of the voting system in DuPage County, the public was invited to see how county election officials test the voting equipment which will be used to tabulate votes on election night.

"Everyone has a chance to see how the election infrastructure works," Matt Dietrich with the Illinois State Board of Elections told the I-Team.

The public test in DuPage County is just one of these kinds of transparent displays of election equipment taking place all across the state in the run up to the midterms.

"This year, it's especially important because obviously, in the wake of the 2020 election, there were some unfounded allegations about systemic voter fraud and other kinds of things that the more we open up the system. The more people who get to see it in action, the more people are going to have their confidence reinforced about the integrity of the election system," said Dietrich.

Election experts said they're concerned that the professionals who run our elections nationwide may leave the job in droves after this election cycle because of increased threats against workers and that could lead to errors, the very problems our system is designed to prevent.

"It's really a concern, because as trust in elections has been challenged over the last few years, the folks who can respond really effectively to that are the folks who've been doing it for a long time," said Gowri Ramachandran, senior counsel for the Brennan Center Election & Government Program.

No concerns for staffing levels at the polls across our area reported this cycle but experts said they're already concerned about who will fill the jobs in 2024.