DefendtheVote.com Identifies Violations of Illinois Election Code

“YOUR RESPONSE IS DEAFENING SILENCE”

by Sharon Meroni, Defend the Vote, ©2012

(Nov. 19, 2012) — Attention Illinois State Board of Elections:

William M. McGuffage (Chairman), Jesse R. Smart (Vice Chairman), Harold D. Byers, Betty J. Coffrin, Ernest L. Gowen, Judith C. Rice, Bryan A. Schneider , and Charles W. Scholz:

Defend the Vote has been investigating issues related to elections in Illinois.  I have sent you letters and updates to some of the most grievous issues we have discovered.  To date your response is deafening silence.  I wish I could say that shocked me.  Unfortunately, like all lifelong Illinois residents, I was raised to expect gross corruption in our elections.

The following is a list of issues we seek to have addressed immediately.

Issues:
Suburban Cook County:
1.       Training Manual – Permits and instructs for the sealing of the ballot box the night before the election, and does not instruct Election Judges to open for the public before the polls open on Election Day.
2.       Suburban Cook County does not seal voted ballots.  They place them in a sealed, but unlocked carrying case with numerous other items.
3.       November 2012 : Suburban Cook County is counted absentee ballots and printed batch reports with number totals at least 2 working days before they are legally allowed to do so.
4.       Suburban Cook County is not using any Election Judges to oversee ANY aspect of absentee voting.
5.       Suburban Cook County does not use election judges to re-make spoiled ballots. (Except on Election Day)
6.       November 2012 : Suburban Cook County is using Sequoia (Dominion) to count absentee ballots without supervision or election judges
7.       Suburban Cook County does not maintain a chain of custody on the absentee ballots or on the memory device
8.       March 2012: Only ¼ of Illinois Nursing Home residents have their vote administered legally.
Chicago:
1.       Absentee Ballots: In March 2014 and in November 2012 Tens of Thousands were illegally authenticated.
2.       Absentee Ballots are not sufficiently sealed before they are counted.
Silence to my repeated attempts to engage the ISBE is not demonstrative of a transparent, honest, accessible, or open government.  What exactly will the Illinois State Board of Elections do about these grievous assaults against the integrity of the vote in Illinois?

Sharon Meroni
Director of Defend the Vote
#####@Defend the Vote.com