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Kaye outlines plan to trial No Inc for Grundy County vote-by-mail processing
Summary
Grundy County elections staff reported plans to test No Inc, a vote-by-mail vendor that provides printing, mailing and voter/ballot tracking. The clerk said the trial could reduce per-election costs and ease staff workload; no board approval is required to pilot the service.
Kaye reported that Grundy County’s elections office plans to pilot No Inc, a vendor that prints and mails vote-by-mail ballots and provides a ballot-tracking system for voters and election staff.
Kaye said No Inc “offers a vote by mail service that processes the printing and mailing of vote by mail ballots,” adding the system gives the clerk’s office continuous reporting and auditing information tied to USPS scans. She described a perforated tracking stub on each ballot packet that includes a tracking number, website and QR code for voters to monitor their ballot’s progress.
Why it matters: the tracking capability would let election staff and voters see USPS updates and help the county respond if mail handling changes — for example, Kaye raised concerns about the U.S. Postal Service consolidating sorting facilities and the potential for increased handling delays.
Kaye estimated direct savings on mailing and processing of more than $2,000 in smaller elections and said, after accounting for printing responsibilities and additional staff time, a realistic per-election cost implication would be about $5,000. “This will be really a great service for our vote and mail voters and ballots will not be opened,” she said, noting that returned ballots would continue to be opened and processed in the clerk’s office by bipartisan teams.
She said several Illinois counties — including McLean, Madison, Tazewell, St. Clair, Cook (City of Chicago), Winnebago and Monroe — have used No Inc for multiple elections with positive results. The office reported mailing roughly 1,800 ballots in the March 2024 primary and about 4,800 in the November election; No Inc’s pricing was described as $5.25 per packet for volumes under 2,500, with a lower per-packet rate for higher volume tiers.
Kaye emphasized No Inc handles address presort/CASS processing, presort/postal discount qualification, USPS scanning and a voter-tracking website; she also said the vendor does not require a long-term contract and the county could test the service for the upcoming smaller March election without a formal board approval. She plans to issue a media release if the office moves forward and noted the office can send late requests internally for last-week mailings when necessary.
Next steps: the clerk will pilot the vendor for the smaller election cycle and inform voters by media release if implemented. The committee did not take a binding vote on the vendor; Kaye said no committee approval was required to try the service.
