County clerks being “inundated” with voting-related FOIA requests here
Thursday, Sep 28, 2023 - Posted by Rich Miller * Votebeat…
Ugh. * I reached out to Matt Dietrich at the Illinois State Board of Elections to ask if this was happening here as well…
* I wasn’t able to reach Ackerman (I’ll let you know if he calls me back), but a Capitol News Illinois story on the press conferences didn’t mention the FOIA issue. Neither did WCIA, WEEK and the Pantagraph. So, I watched the press conference online. * Ackerman told reporters that clerks were being “inundated” with FOIAs (although he said they have tapered off somewhat lately). “It’s the exact same message from the exact same person,” Ackerman said, without identifying the person. Clerks are being asked for “items we don’t have here in Illinois. They’re asking for data and for log books that don’t exist because they’ve gotten the information from out of state sources rather than sources within the state.” “I do feel sorry for some of my smaller counties,” Ackerman said. “I have staff that can help get that stuff prepared.” Many of the smaller counties, he said, only have one or two employees handling the inquiries. “That’s really taking a huge amount of their time to answer the same amount of questions as a larger county.” …Adding… I was able to connect with Clerk Ackerman, who told me he hasn’t received any FOIA requests that he knows of from Timpone’s Local Labs. Most all of the FOIA requests were anonymous, he said, so he couldn’t rule it out. His office did receive a request for early voting envelopes, which was denied for being overly broad.
|
*** UPDATED x3 *** Pritzker says he’s ‘expressed concerns’ about the city’s proposed migrant tent camps: ‘I don’t think this is the only option’
Thursday, Sep 28, 2023 - Posted by Rich Miller * Gov. Pritzker was asked today about Chicago’s highly controversial contract with GardaWorld to house large numbers of asylum seekers in tents over the winter…
Please pardon all transcription errors. The state has a contract with GardaWorld that the city is piggy-backing on. Pritzker told reporters today that the state has “not yet used that contract.” * Pritzker was also asked about his conversations with people in the federal government about what he wants them to do…
* One press conference attendee asked why the state wasn’t opening up McCormick Place East (Lakeside Center) to the migrants like was done during the pandemic. What a bizarre question. McCormick Place was shut down during the pandemic. Nobody was going to conventions back then, so they had plenty of room. If you click here, you’ll see that McCormick Place Lakeside Center has several scheduled events. *** UPDATE 1*** Chicago Ald. Carlos Ramirez-Rosa sent me a text in response…
His tweet was more blunt…
*** UPDATE 2 *** Pritzker spokesperson Jordan Abudayyeh called to say “We have offered to open shelters,” going back to Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s tenure. Neither Lightfoot nor Mayor Johnson have taken the state up on the offer, she said, adding that the state has already provided $328 million in state funds. More in a bit. *** UPDATE 3 *** Abudayyeh followed up by saying that the city has finally agreed to the state’s turn-key shelter plan for a vacant CVS facility in Little Village.
|
« NEWER POSTS | PREVIOUS POSTS » |