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Cook County elections office demos 'Election Lens' dashboard; commissioners raise privacy and access questions
Summary
Deputy Clerk Ed Michalowski and the Clerk’s elections team presented Election Lens, a real-time analytics platform for turnout, mail-ballot tracking and polling-place readiness. Commissioners asked about public access, personally identifiable information and cybersecurity; the committee approved receipt of the presentation by roll call.
Deputy Clerk Ed Michalowski and members of the Clerk’s elections team demonstrated Election Lens, a real-time analytics dashboard the office used in the March primary to monitor turnout, mail-ballot status and polling-place readiness across Cook County.
Michalowski said Election Lens gives county staff a live, countywide view of early voting, mail-ballot check-ins and polling-place activity, and that the system integrates mail-ballot tracking, GPS for equipment, and operational metrics for poll pads. In a live demo, staff said roughly 117,000 mail ballots were sent for the referenced election and that about 61,000 remained unreturned while about 61,000 had been returned at the time of the demo.
The presentation emphasized operational uses: identifying ZIP codes or post-office trouble spots, routing help to polling places with battery or sync problems, and allowing any authorized staffer to tell a constituent where a ballot is in the process. The team also described pilots such as early-voting check-ins at high schools and voting at nursing homes and the county jail.
Commissioners focused questions on whether Election Lens will be public-facing and how personally identifiable information (PII) will be protected. Deputies said the system is currently available only inside the county network and that public access would require legal review and additional bandwidth; the office plans to explore what data can be shared with the Board and others without exposing PII. Rahul Patel, the Clerk’s Director of Cybersecurity, said the implementation follows the same high security standards used for poll pads and that a mock election will be run this summer to test end-to-end processes.
Commissioners also discussed potential uses by campaigns or D1 organizations; staff said those conversations and any commercial arrangements would require careful legal and policy review, noting hosting and bandwidth costs could be significant. Commissioner Trevor and others urged the Clerk’s Office to hold joint sessions with city election authorities to explore data-sharing for real-time results.
The committee approved the Clerk’s Office presentation/appearance by roll call (12 ayes, 5 absent). Officials said they will continue interagency coordination, language-access work and technical testing ahead of upcoming elections.
