Illinois is one of a handful of states that does not require photo ID verification at the polls. This begs the question: How do polling sites verify you are who you say? The answer is through signatures, either gotten through your original polling registration or updated through DMV records.
Leaders of McLean County's two election bodies say although this expedites the process, for some voters it can also lead to an additional step due to unmatched signatures. This especially becomes a problem when considering your signature on file could be from your late teens or early twenties. The DMV only requires a new signature every 12 years.
“That's more of a conversation right now, but people who've registered maybe 20 years ago, their signature is different now,” Bloomington Election Commission [BEC] Executive Director Will Nesbitt said. “But we always tell our judges to look for something similar that you can find in the signature.”
Voters who are unable to immediately provide a proper signature would be able to cast a provisional ballot that would count once their signature is verified.
Nesbitt added that here in Illinois, since it is a no ID state, these signatures are looked at meticulously.
“There is more attention on the signature, obviously, because that's the only thing that we can use to verify.”
McLean County Clerk Kathy Michael seconded this statement and added some additional background on who exactly looks at these signatures.
“The team right here, it's made up of Democrats and Republicans,” Michael said. “Always look at us, your election authority, and this whole system is open to the public.”
For those who may be worried about an old signature, Nesbitt said you can simply update your registration. This can be done online but he encourages people who live in the City of Bloomington to come to the BEC to get everything done correctly. Michael said the same can be done for all other McLean County residents.
“Over the phone or online, there's a way that you can redo your signature and get a fresh signature,” Michael said. “Otherwise, if it's at the polling place, they can just re-sign and re-register at the time. It's a pretty quick process.”
If you want to update your registration it can be done up until and including election day.
“It's called grace period registration here at the office up until election day,” Nesbitt said. “On election day as well, you just have to bring two forms of ID. One has to have the current address on it, and then you have to vote at the same time.”
For those who have issues with their ballot and/or signature, Nesbitt said it takes five minutes to fix.
Updates have arrived
The BEC and county clerk have thousands of ballots to go through during election time. In Illinois, ballots are allowed to be counted ahead of time.
“Illinois has a law where we can count as we receive. So every Friday at 3 o'clock, we are counting our vote-by-mail ballots,” Nesbitt said. “We're not tabulating; we're just getting the results through the machine. They are locked down. We cannot look at anything. There's an audit trail that does capture every move we make on that machine, just to prove that. So then on election day, we'll be all caught up.”
Not only does this provide quicker results on election night, it also allows the election judges to get to bed earlier. Since mailed ballots can now be counted as soon as they come in, Nesbitt said it keeps them busy.
“We have judges working all day every day, so why not utilize them?” Nesbitt said. “I'm supervising, but they are the ones doing the counting by law. We're able to be more efficient, so we have less staff needed on election day here at the office, and we can have results quicker for the news and the public.”
For the latest election updates and candidate information, visit WGLT’s 2026 Voter Guide.
