Reply #6: no it says that if a voter skips certain contests, the machine beeps [View All]

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

letting everyone in the polling place know that the voter left certain contests blank.

The state passed a law requiring *undervote* notification for certain state offices.
Not all, just certain offices. The voter is notified by a loud beep that they left one of
those contests blank. So is everyone else in the polling place.

From the article:

The Illinois Undervote Notification Law of 2007 has drawn fire from county clerks across the state because it will require all voting systems to detect and notify voters if they undervote, which occurs when a ballot does not include votes for one or more offices. The measure takes affect in 2010, with the first real impact coming with the primary election Feb. 2.

The new law requires notification to voters when they do not cast a vote for any one of the state constitutional offices — such as governor, attorney general, secretary of state, comptroller, treasurer. However, some election system voting machines also will reject an undervote for a local elected office, such as precinct committeeman or county office.
http://www.myjournalcourier.com/news/law-24877-state-ballot.html

There's also a considerable amount of money being spent to have the machines modified
to perform this action.

IL: Suit against optical scanning machine rejected
http://www.news-gazette.com/news/local/2009/12/18/suit_against_optical_scanning_machine_rejected
December 18, 2009 URBANA – Despite efforts by Champaign County Clerk Mark Shelden to prevent it, voters in the primary election in February may hear their voting machines beeping...
...
Shelden argued, according to court documents submitted in support of his request, that "the right of Champaign County voters to a secret ballot has been compromised" by a change in the state election laws, which require all optical scan ballot tabulation machines to produce an error message when a voter "undervotes" or fails to vote for one or more statewide constitutional office races.

IL: Voting law proceeding despite concerns
http://www.pekintimes.com/news/x1689182012/Voting-law-proceeding-despite-concerns
PEKIN, Ill. - Voting this February could be a little more complicated.
Thanks to a provision passed by the Illinois State Legislature and signed into law by then-Governor Rod Blagojevich in 2007, if a voter fails to vote for any particular office, many voting machines throughout the state will beep loudly and spit the ballot back out. An election judge will then have to assist the voter, either correcting the undervote; or overriding the system and casting the vote with the omission.

Whether or not the voter intentionally left the ballot blank for that office, which is perfectly legal and is often done, is not taken into account by the machines.