THE DAILY ILLINI
MONDAY October 26, 2020
The independent student newspaper at the University of Illinois since 1871
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Vol. 150 Issue 19
Illinois hits record high in new cases BY ETHAN SIMMONS NEWS EDITOR
Illinois hit its single-day high in new COVID-19 cases on Saturday, with 6,161 new cases after 83,000 more tests. Half of Illinois’ 102 counties were moved to the “warning level” for COVID-19 on Friday by the state’s department of public health. The number of counties in the warning level increased by 34 in just a week as the nation grapples with a new surge in COVID-19 cases. “Although the reasons for counties reaching a warning level varies, some of the common factors for an increase in cases and outbreaks are associated with gatherings in people’s homes, weddings and funerals, bars and clubs, university and college parties as well as college sports teams, family gatherings, long-term care facilities, correctional centers, schools and cases among the community at large, especially people in their 20s,” Illinois Department of Public Health wrote
on its website. A county triggers the warning level when it surpasses two or more of the following eight coronavirus risk indicators: • more than 50 new cases per 100,000 people in the county; • weekly number of deaths increase more than 20% for two straight weeks; • the seven-day test positivity rate rises above 8%; • fewer than 20% of intensive care units are available in the region; • the weekly percent of “COVID-19-like illness” emergency department visits or hospital admissions increases by more than 20% for two consecutive weeks; • an inadequate level of testBRIGIDA DOCKUS THE DAILY ILLINI ing is performed in the A student enters the early voting site located at the Illini Union on Friday afternoon. Many first-time voters on campus opted for county; in-person locations. • a large number or percentage of cases associated with certain “clusters” Illinois’ top public health
First-time voters cast in-person
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BY ALEXANDRA GERGOVA STAFF WRITER
PHOTO COURTESY OF TERESA CRAWFORD/AP IMAGES
Dr. Ngozi Ezike speaks about the COVID-19 pandemic during a news conference on July 15. On Saturday, Illinois reached a new single-day high in COVID-19 cases.
Following the opening of the three on-campus voting locations on Oct. 19 at the Activities and Recreation Center, Illini Union and University YMCA, a multitude of students who are first-time voters have taken advantage of the opportunity to cast their ballots. Because of COVID-19, the University has taken precautions to ensure the safety of those participating in early on-campus voting. A few of these include the implementation of stickers mandating appropriate distancing between voters, face masks and sanitized pens, said Aysha Ahmad, a sophomore in LAS. “As I entered the room, I saw that there were stickers on the floor to indicate distance between one another, so it was really nice that they took that step to place the stickers and make sure everyone was on them,”
Ahmad said. “When I went to get my ballot, everyone had their face masks on and had their shields, which they were really protective about. They had sanitized pens and would collect them at the end to resanitize them, and the booths were set distantly.” The process itself was rapid and easy, said Jacob Krueger, a freshman in Gies. The registration entailed verification of his identity by means of his last name, date of birth and two forms of identification. Afterward, he was directed to a voting booth where he was able to privately fill out the corresponding bubbles on his ballot. “The ballot itself was really easy to read, and it was well-categorized,” Krueger said. “When I was done, the lady instructed me to bring my ballot to her, and she then gave me a little sticker and shoved it into the machine. The whole
process itself took about ten minutes. It was really quick and really efficient.” Both Ahmad and Krueger attributed their decision to vote early at one of the oncampus locations to perceived uncertainty and risks associated with voting early via mail-in ballot. “I have anxiety, and I feel like doing a mail-in ballot was too much of a risk,” Ahmad said. “I would rather go in-person, vote in-person and feel better about it than the mail-in ballot where I would just be worried about it being accepted and everything.” Krueger echoed similar sentiments when explaining his decision to vote early at the ARC. “(I voted early at the ARC because of) the idea of handing it in personally and not having to wait for it in the mail since I know there’s a lot of speculation about whether or not mail-in ballots would be valid or not or
whether they could get lost,” Krueger said. Despite this shared fear, the state of Illinois has been adamant that local election officials are well prepared for the large amount of anticipated mail-in ballots and that individuals will be alerted about any issues. In Champaign, there are specific procedures in place where the County Clerk’s office will contact any individuals if issues arise. According to the County Clerk’s website, “if you log into My Voter Information, it will tell you when your ballot has been received by the Clerk’s Office. If there is anything that would prevent your ballot from being cast, the Clerk’s Office would contact you immediately to rectify the issue.” As reported by the U.S. Elections Project, 31,600 individuals in Champaign County have requested SEE VOTING | 3A
CU officials worry about census undercounts University test-proctoring BY AMRITA BHATTACHARYYA
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The increase in the number of online classes led to the demand for online proctoring, which left the University’s Computer-Based Testing Facility searching for staff. Instead of administering in-person exams at the facility like previous semesters, proctors virtually monitor students during their online examinations. “We hired 54 brand new proctors this semester, on top of some experienced ones who have been with the CBTF from previous semesters,” CBTF Manager Carleen Sacris said. “We are 75 proctors strong this semester.” Earlier this year, CBTF was aiming for “about 80” proctors to meet online testing demands. Meanwhile, many students are calling for the University to end ties to Proctorio, an online proctoring service, over privacy concerns. A petition titled “Stop Proctoring
70 60 50 40 30 20 10 2020 2010 Champaign
2020 2010 Urbana
Illinois total enumerated (including nonresponse followup): 99.9% Source: U.S. Census Bureau comfortable going door to door. “Keep in mind many, many countries around the world delayed their census for a year because of COVID,” Buckley said. “We are alone in making the unique decision to shorten the amount of time for the census.” According to Buckley, the central Illinois area hit
a 99% enumeration rate in early October due to efficient crews, good response turnout and cooperation from respondents. However, concerns still remain due to the obstacles the census faced. “Because there is a disparate impact on who gets counted, it is unduly politicizing the census to muck around with the due date,”
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Buckley said. One possible area of undercount is the student population, as the pandemic forced many to leave campus. “A lot of the concern was the fact that so much of our population was not here at a very critical time for this count,” Marlin said.
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Features: New generation strives to claim ballot box
Sports: Offense falters in loss to Wisconsin
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Exams Through Proctorio at UIUC” has over 900 signatures against this issue. The Graduate Employees’ Organization has also expressed their concern regarding the same. Many students have reported complaints against the software since it requires access to the webcam and microphone that the student uses during exams, as well as downloads and privacy settings. The service monitors movements that students make on camera. While many courses may be looking into other alternatives for proctoring, this may not change much for the CBTF as of now. The CBTF finalizes its schedule a week before the semester begins and does not add any courses in between, so as to plan ahead of time and anticipate the demand for proctoring. This is also affected by capacity and time constraints.
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as of October 16th, 2020
Self-Response Rate (%)
With enumeration for the 2020 Census cut short by the Trump Administration on Oct. 15, C-U officials are concerned about undercounts and are considering a Special Census. Next available in 2022, a Special Census is generally used when local officials believe there has been a significant population change in their community. According to Champaign Mayor Deb Feinen, Champaign has begun to “strategically plan” for the special census. Urbana Mayor Diane Marlin also said, “a special census is certainly a possibility and probably likely.” In the midst of a pandemic and multiple changes to the census’s end date, this year’s enumeration raised concerns about completely capturing the population. “This was a perfect storm,” Marlin said. Cynthia Buckley, sociology professor and enumerator, says the “continual politicization of the census” led to delays in printing census questionnaires, forms and programming the digital enumeration technology. As an enumerator, Buckley went out into the community and door-knocked, following up with nonrespondents of the census. According to Buckley, the pandemic made it impossible for large enumerator training sessions to take place, and many dropped out because they did not feel
facility reaches hiring goal
Census Self-Response Rates
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