By Adam Studzinski

BLOOMINGTON – McLean County Clerk Kathy Michael is looking at a few ways to try and reduce the wait time for students to vote at Illinois State University’s Bone Student Center in the November Election.

Students waited as much as three hours to vote during the March primary. Michael will present her recommended budget for the November election on June 1. One suggestion is more voting machines.

“We tripled what we normally had at ISU with seven,” said Michael. “Just based on statistics, I think we’re going to have to have 20, so there’s another $1,000 a piece.”

Michael told WJBC’s Terry James she is also going to suggest placing 20 election judges at ISU. 11 were at the site in March. Along with this, she’s recommending the election judges get $200 a piece for working the election.

“This last time, reports from all election judges all throughout the county – and they weren’t complaining, they were very proud of the very busy day – hardly got bathroom breaks,” said Michael. “We’re hoping that would actually equate to about $10-an-hour.”

Judges have typically made $145.

One problem while working through this process, Michael said, is they’re not sure what voter turnout will be.

“In the General Election with President Obama, there were 2,600 students that voted at ISU. What’s it going to be this time? 4,000?” she said.

Michael added they need to make sure they’re paying attention to the other precincts in the county, some of which also expect to have large turnouts.

Adam Studzinski can be reached at [email protected].