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Sen. Kirk jumps into treasurer’s race controversy

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Illinois

* AP…

Cross, the former Illinois House minority leader from Oswego, and his campaign are questioning the Chicago Board of Election Commissioners about the number of mailed ballots it has received and how it has accounted for them.

The board released a letter late Friday rebutting a majority of the claims, including its accounting for 4,600 absentee ballots and a claim that 1,406 previously unknown mail-in ballots were discovered in a closet. But the board acknowledged that 99 mail-in ballots that were received too late were inadvertently mingled with 459 legitimate ballots. Those 558 ballots were separated for possible “postelection court proceedings” under an agreement with election judges of both parties, board spokesman Jim Allen said.

The complaints by Cross’ lawyer William Quinlan prompted U.S. Sen. Mark Kirk to ask U.S. Attorney Zachary Fardon to “secure” questioned ballots and “establish the chain of custody.”

“Our home city of Chicago has an unfortunate reputation for voter fraud and producing bogus election results,” Kirk wrote in the letter obtained by the AP. Voters “find the alleged behavior repulsive and they demand a change.”

Allen responded by re-releasing the board’s Friday response to Quinlan and adding, “There are contents of that original letter drafted by Mr. Quinlan that are clearly uninformed, misguided, inaccurate, and absolutely reckless with the truth.”

* Meanwhile, you’ve probably noticed that the treasurer’s race numbers changed last night. Scott Kennedy explains why…

* DeWitt County – there were a total of 5 new votes over what was previously publicly reported and Cross gained 4 votes. These should be their final totals.
* Jasper County – there were a total of 4 new votes over what was previously publicly reported and Cross gained 4 votes. These should be their final totals.
* Marshall County – there were a total of 10 new votes over what was previously publicly reported and Cross gained 4 votes. These should be their final totals.
* Pope County – there were a total of 3 new votes over what was previously publicly reported and Cross gained 1 vote. These should be their final totals.
* Richland County – there were a total of 29 new votes over what was previously publicly reported and Cross gained 9 votes. These should be their final totals.
* Macoupin County – there were a total of 79 new votes over what was previously publicly reported and it was a push, the margin remains exactly the same. These should be their final totals.
* Bond County – there were a total of 2 new votes over what was previously publicly reported and Cross gained 2 votes. These should be their final totals.
* Morgan County – there were a total of 123 new votes over what was previously publicly reported and Cross gained 41 votes. These should be their final totals.
* Pike County – there were a total of 4 new votes over what was previously publicly reported and Cross gained 3 votes. These should be their final totals.
* Fayette County – there were a total of 26 new votes over what was previously publicly reported and Cross gained 11 votes. These should be their final totals.
* Kane (only, not including Aurora) – there were a total of 382 new votes over what was previously publicly reported and Cross gained 215 votes. I’m not sure if these are their final totals.
* Vermilion (only, not including Danville) – there were a total of 81 new votes over what was previously publicly reported and Frerichs gained 1 vote. These should be their final totals.

* And gives us a look ahead…

Here is what to expect for tomorrow and Wednesday. I expect the clerks will finalize and update the vote totals in each election authority tomorrow. The clerks will still have to complete the canvass and the totals won’t yet be certified but at least we won’t be expecting any further updates unless errors are found.

Technically the clerks have to wait to make sure no additional ballots come in the mail tomorrow so the updates are more likely to come later in the day. I will take a late lunch and check for updates during my lunch and then again after work.

On Wednesday I have to travel for work and will not be able to check for updates at all. I have given Rich Miller and his intern access to the Google Doc that is keeping track of these totals so they can make updates if needed.

Also, if you need to get updates faster anyone can copy/paste the data at the bottom of my tracker where it is listed by election authority and perform their own checks.

To make it easier to quickly see which totals are final I have them color coded. All the numbers for each election authority in blue are not yet final, the numbers in black are the numbers that are expected to be final.

For previous updates I’ve written a little blurb after each one explaining the update. Here is that history in table format. Since almost all 110 election authorities are expected to have an update in the next day or two I probably won’t write up each one, I am going to try to keep this table up to date and just reference the table.

His tracker is here.

posted by Rich Miller
Tuesday, Nov 18, 14 @ 9:38 am

Comments

I’d love to see Kirk sit down with Allen on Chicago Tonight. Allen would beat him like an old rug.

Comment by PublicServant Tuesday, Nov 18, 14 @ 9:57 am
Iron Rule of Media: Lead with DeWitt County when you need bigger ratings.

Comment by Backwards Tuesday, Nov 18, 14 @ 10:10 am
Sen. Kirk can be somewhat of a dilettante.

Who exactly is he accusing of vote fraud? And could he give us some examples of bogus election results?

Comment by Wordslinger Tuesday, Nov 18, 14 @ 10:27 am
Senator Kirk shouldn’t lower himself to these levels. He maintains his “moderate” and independent” image by being above such partisan crap.

Comment by walker Tuesday, Nov 18, 14 @ 10:34 am
Sen. Kirk,

Bite me.

There is an unfortunate history of bogus vote results from DuPage and Lake County as well.

I’ve been at the counting / overseeing of the provisional ballots and both sides are extremely bored as we simply watch the employees of the Chicago Board of Elections do their jobs.

Time for a Voter Integrity Project in DuPage for sure.

Comment by low level Tuesday, Nov 18, 14 @ 10:35 am
FYI–McLean County has approx. 350 provisional and absentee ballots to certify and count. Expect the majority of those treasurer votes to go to Cross.

Comment by Nearly Normal Tuesday, Nov 18, 14 @ 10:48 am
So is it presumed that Cook going to come in with a 20,000 vote dump today, giving Frerichs the easy win?

I’m not understanding the timing of these updates.

Comment by DuPage Moderate Tuesday, Nov 18, 14 @ 10:52 am
All this time, I thought vote fraud was individuals committing multiple felonies to cast multiple votes.

That’s the reason for the national Voter ID drive, right? Pure and saintly motivations.

You know, vote fraud ain’t what it used to be. The turnout in the city was a little over 36 percent. If the election authorities were going to steal an election, why didn’t they steal the governor’s office? That’s where the rewards of jobs and contracts are. A fifty percent turnout probably would have done it for Quinn.

Instead, apparently they’re committing felonies and risking prison for the do–nothing treasurers office. Amateurs.

Comment by Wordslinger Tuesday, Nov 18, 14 @ 10:54 am
Kudos to Scott Kennedy for stepping up and being the point person for information in what will be our closest statewide race in decades.

Comment by Hon. John Fritchey Tuesday, Nov 18, 14 @ 11:20 am
Whatever happens here, this Scott Kennedy dude ought to get a special Golden Horseshoe and a gift card to Wendy’s for finding the beef.

Comment by A guy... Tuesday, Nov 18, 14 @ 11:23 am
I think the bigger issue is the mismanagement of the operation(the people at the top might know all the rules and such, but doesn’t seem the middle management completely understands Illinois overly complex election law and the process seems rushed-potentially leading to errors-noticing voters eligible, ineligible and those who have voted twice, late or those who shouldn’t have been thrown out), I don’t know if they all were eventually caught(suspect they likely were), but yesterday 600 additional further review provisional ballots(yet to have a final determination made), slipped(no explanation of the exact details) through to the tabulation stage of provisional ballots requiring name comparisons for every ballot.(which given how pressed for time they were could very well lead to missing some, but who know they could all have been good or may all have been caught)

Comment by Moving on Tuesday, Nov 18, 14 @ 11:35 am
The corporate media works so hard to prop-up Sen. Mark Kirk b/c he’s aligned with the preferred side by the corporate bosses.

But he’s such a lightweight when you start paying attention to specifics.

The Cross allegations have been debunked and ridiculed. But Kirk doesn’t need to find out the truth.

It’s just like Israel and everything else for Kirk. His allies tell him what side of the issue to take and he takes it.

Comment by Carl Nyberg Tuesday, Nov 18, 14 @ 11:37 am
Quinlan and Kirk running around making reckless allegations while Jim Allen himself has been seen in the boiler rooms of the Board of Elections with officials and volunteers to see what is going on himself. An interesting contrast, someone with credibility and insight versus two clowns.

Comment by Precinct Captain Tuesday, Nov 18, 14 @ 11:39 am
Senator Kirk should turn his attention to Lake County, where there are actual problems.

Comment by Yellow Dog Democrat Tuesday, Nov 18, 14 @ 11:47 am
==Our home city of Chicago has an unfortunate reputation for voter fraud and producing bogus election results,” Kirk wrote in the letter obtained by the AP. Voters “find the alleged behavior repulsive and they demand a change.==

Can Kirk cite an example of this that isn’t twenty years old, urban legend, or both?

Comment by orzo Tuesday, Nov 18, 14 @ 12:02 pm
I take it Skopek must have picked up at least one of those votes in Macoupin if 79 new votes resulted in a push?

Comment by thechampaignlife Tuesday, Nov 18, 14 @ 12:08 pm
@low level 10:35=Time for a voter integrity project in DuPage for sure.=

I don’t think the DuPage election commission is corrupt. In my opinion, however, they are very inept, incompetent political hacks, who should be replaced. Long ago, they actually had private booths so the voter could cast a secret ballot. Now, for the last couple decades, they have gone to cheaper booths with no privacy curtains, and some of the booths are set up with an aisle behind the voter. People walking behind can see who you are voting for. Also, previous elections had ballots the voter would put in an envelope-like folder that covered the ballot selections. A judge would initial the corner of the ballot and the voter would drop the whole thing into a ballot box, vote selections still covered up. This last election, the voter was given a sheet of paper to cover the ballot between the voting area to the counting machine/ballot box. The paper then has to be removed for the voter to insert the ballot into the machine, under the watchful eyes of a poll worker who is there to help the voter if needed. The ballot is not covered and must go into the machine a certain way, so it can be seen at a quick glance how it is marked. Also, nearby security cameras might see the uncovered ballot, along with a picture of the voter.

I wonder, how do other counties set up their polling places? Do they make sure of the integrity of the secret ballot?

Comment by DuPage Tuesday, Nov 18, 14 @ 12:23 pm
Mark Kirk was of course totally silent when his Republican pals were employing openly armed men to intimidate Libertarian Party petition circulators/signers and making bogus robocalls to election judges.

Comment by too obvious Tuesday, Nov 18, 14 @ 12:26 pm
i) The Senator has never resided in Chicago, to my knowledge - so “our home city” is quite questionable, ii) “bogus election results” is insulting to so many people who make the election process work in our State. He simply does not know about this topic at all.

Comment by atbat Tuesday, Nov 18, 14 @ 12:34 pm
This is an example of Kirk trying to establish street cred with the right wing of his party to protect him in the 2016 primary. For the next two years, he’ll try to find easy issues to demagogue in order to keep conservatives on his side (”pay no attention to that anti-gun, pro-choice, pro-gay marriage moderate behind the curtain.”) Kinda like Rauner did with his union bashing.

Of course, the great irony in this bogus “vote-fraud-in-Chicago meme” is that there are ten times more eyes (reporters, election judges, attorneys) watching the vote counting in Cook County than there are in the rest of the state combined. Odds are, if anything unseemly is going to happen, it will occur where no one is watching.

Comment by Tim Tuesday, Nov 18, 14 @ 12:59 pm
Just looked at the tracker and it looks like this race got a whole lot closer since this morning.

Comment by Hon. John Fritchey Tuesday, Nov 18, 14 @ 1:18 pm
John, it’s gonna get tighter pretty soon.

Comment by Rich Miller Tuesday, Nov 18, 14 @ 1:20 pm
To be honest I question how many commenters have actually gone down and seen the process, yes it is likely much improved since previous election, but having seen numerous miss or near misses at every stage would have trouble believing that some ballots that should have been counted were missed and some that shouldn’t have been counted were. How often do they actually have to be so precise with regards to absentee and provisional ballot? Not anytime in the last 100 years so it seem the almost daily changing procedures(eventually nailed down) and caring level of staff attention would fall short because of the very uniqueness of the circumstances(and rarity of enhanced measures)

On a more scientific note I hope the board recognizes that the margin for error in such a close election to achieve the scientific standard of either 95 or 98 percent confidence level is significantly below normal operating range and as such significant procedural changes, staff training, and verification are necessary. (but it seems that they have neither the time or the money to achieve such a benchmark)
Only time will tell, but I’m still puzzled why we couldn’t just get it right the first time(and save money) and avoid what seems to be an inevitable recount.

Comment by Get it right the first time Tuesday, Nov 18, 14 @ 1:24 pm
Every high school Senior in this state should be tuned into this tote board right now as a way of proving voting matters and every vote counts. Oy.

Comment by A guy... Tuesday, Nov 18, 14 @ 2:02 pm
Re:: Scott Kennedy -

Someone give this man a freakin’ medal!

And do the humpty hump!

Comment by okgo Tuesday, Nov 18, 14 @ 2:05 pm
Over-Under :

Frerichs up by 7,000 at end of the day.

Comment by okgo Tuesday, Nov 18, 14 @ 2:06 pm
Should we make anything of the fact that some election boards, namely Cook, Chicago, DuPage and Lake, have not updated their counts in over one week?

While other large election boards, such as Rockford and Kane, have since updated their counts multiple times according to Mr. Kennedy’s site?

Comment by Formerly Known As... Tuesday, Nov 18, 14 @ 2:20 pm
== Frerichs up by 7,000 at end of the day ==

Going from -21,000 during the machine count to +7,000 during the absentee and mail-in count would certainly be an interesting development.

The final tally seems likely to be closer to 700 votes than 7,000 votes, but who really knows for sure at this point?

Comment by Formerly Known As... Tuesday, Nov 18, 14 @ 2:43 pm
I’m no fan of theChicago Board, but the allegation that the staff is incompetent is bogus. Given the number of ballots, which form piles and stacks of boxes during the review process, I’m surprised they’ve tot done at all. In my experience the managers are very sharp on ballot requirements and the staff, with rare exceptions tries hard to do the job right. I am disappointed, but not shocked that 99 went astray.

Comment by Percival Tuesday, Nov 18, 14 @ 2:46 pm
I predicted Frerichs by 601 the other day on here.

Comment by ThatGirl Tuesday, Nov 18, 14 @ 2:52 pm
Sen Kirk is a fraud. To think, I almost thought about voting for the faker. Cross is at least consistent with his whining.

Comment by John Birch Tuesday, Nov 18, 14 @ 3:58 pm
A big round of applause for Rich and Scott Kennedy. We really don’t know how lucky we are to have Capitol Fax !

Comment by John Birch Tuesday, Nov 18, 14 @ 4:04 pm
I really don’t understand why the GOPers are writing down the name and address of every provisional. Every one

Comment by low level Tuesday, Nov 18, 14 @ 4:44 pm
Four years ago as a statewide candidate, Mark Kirk bragged about having an army of lawyers ready to go into “key vulnerable precincts on the south and west sides…where the other side may be tempted to jigger the numbers somewhat”. That was Mark Kirk engaging in what sounded like both voter suppression and dog whistle politics. This new baseless comment of the Senator seems to fit a narrative he creates without any facts to support it. Please don’t mention the 1960 Election for President as Nixon still loses the Electoral College even if he had won Illinois. Get over it and stop using that election to justify blanket claims of voter fraud.

Comment by FortyFour Tuesday, Nov 18, 14 @ 10:48 pm