The Illinois State Board of Elections (ISBE) has teams of experts that focus on election preparedness year-round.

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (WAND) - While voting in the primaries usually takes voters less than an hour, that is not the case for election officials. The Illinois State Board of Elections (ISBE) has teams of experts that focus on election preparedness year-round. 

Key focuses for ISBE are accuracy and security. When it comes to security, Matt Dietrich with ISBE said information is the core asset they are protecting. 

"Your voter registration data has lots of personal information on it," Dietrich said. "It's probably got the last four digits of your Social Security number, it's got your complete birth date, your address, may have a driver's license number on it. All of the things that could fall into the hands of an identity thief could be extremely dangerous. So we really, really safeguard that." 

Dietrich said they have teams of cybersecurity experts on hand to ensure all online data is safe and secure. For added security, actual ballot information is not transmitted via the internet. Dietrich explained that all of the data inside tabulators is stored locally and transmitted directly by local election authorities. 

This also helps when it comes to the accuracy of election results. The state randomly checks a certain amount of election data each round to ensure that everything is going well. 

"Voters need to understand is that there is an extremely strict accounting of every single ballot that is given to a voter, either as a vote-by-mail ballot, an early ballot in person, or on Election Day at a polling place," Dietrich said. "It's a very, very tight system." 

Dietrich said if voters have questions, they should ask their local election authority, which is typically a county clerk. 

For more information about voting, visit the ISBE website.

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