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If you think your vote doesn’t matter, think again

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Illinois

* More than two years of legal maneuvering and no end in site…

Tentative dates have been added to the 2018 Macon County sheriff race trial that could extend it into 2021.

The race between Democrat Tony Brown and Republican Jim Root, which initially came down to one vote, led to a trial involving 1,337 contested ballots. […]

Root’s attorney, John Fogarty, said in opening statements there were 223 ballots without election judge signatures, with 99 of those for Brown and 88 for Root. It was agreed ballots without election signatures would be taken out of the total, but Fogarty said his side will dispute 26 that have more issues than just no signatures.

posted by Rich Miller
Friday, Dec 11, 20 @ 3:29 am

Comments

What are the chances the legal battle drags on till the next election? Seriously it is ridiculous for a matter of such inport to take this much time.

Comment by Captain Obvious Friday, Dec 11, 20 @ 7:26 am
I’m curious as to what the outcome could be here. Retroactively make someone sheriff?

Comment by historic66 Friday, Dec 11, 20 @ 7:31 am
I haven’t been following this, but who is bankrolling this? 2 plus years for a sheriff’s office?

Comment by Bruce( no not him) Friday, Dec 11, 20 @ 8:17 am
I don’t really see how this disproves the idea that tour vote doesn’t matter

Comment by AndyIllini Friday, Dec 11, 20 @ 8:24 am
After a certain point of time you’ve got to have a coin flip.

As a side note, I assume there is an interim sheriff, but doesn’t this farce reveal the importance, or lack of, this office?

Comment by Flyin' Elvis'-Utah Chapter Friday, Dec 11, 20 @ 8:41 am
One or two ballots missing a judge’s signature, ok it can happen.

But 223 ballots, really?

Comment by don the legend Friday, Dec 11, 20 @ 8:42 am
Yeah, they’ve got to investigate why no signature on those 223 ballots. As for Root’s side disputing 26 “that have more issues” according to them, without specifics, that rises to the level of trumpian vagueness.

However, let’s get an independent investigation into this post haste, and announce a winner.

Comment by PublicServant Friday, Dec 11, 20 @ 8:58 am
@Flyin’ Elivs, Antonio Brown, the winner by a vote is serving as sheriff, not interim.

Comment by GV Friday, Dec 11, 20 @ 9:00 am
GV-
Thanks. So all this for less than two years in the job if the ruling goes the other way?
Money well spent.

Comment by Flyin' Elvis'-Utah Chapter Friday, Dec 11, 20 @ 9:13 am
The taxpayers of Macon are the real losers here. So ridiculous

Comment by southsider Friday, Dec 11, 20 @ 9:36 am
Odd how an Illinois sheriff’s election points out that there are problems with voting (even though in this case it likely does not rise to the level of vote fraud). The lamestream media pretends actual fraud never happens, but the Heritage Foundation tracks it state-by-state, with links to news media coverage. Look up the Illinois issues they found here: https://www.heritage.org/voterfraud/search?state=IL

Comment by thisjustinagain Friday, Dec 11, 20 @ 9:39 am
“the lamestream media”

Clever, I hear Lorne Michaels is looking for writers.

“pretends actual fraud never happens”

No, they report that actual investigations by professionals conclude there is no wide-spread fraud.

Mom has your juice box ready.

Comment by Flyin' Elvis'-Utah Chapter Friday, Dec 11, 20 @ 9:44 am
Anyone using “lamestream media” without being ironic is hard to take seriously, but I decided to look at what you linked to. Three pages of cases dating 1982 to 2018 and at least four of the entries are related to the same situation. If that’s the beat you’ve got for proving election fraud causing issues in IL, you’re making a good point that our elections are pretty secure.

Comment by Fixer Friday, Dec 11, 20 @ 9:49 am
=== The lamestream media===

Ok, what is the Heritage Foundation, who are their donors, etc.

See, we all can pretend to be Rush Limbaugh or whomever…

To this specific instance, man, every vote matters, this is to an extreme… of the extreme.

Comment by Oswego Willy Friday, Dec 11, 20 @ 9:54 am
By the time this is over, they will be getting petitions to run against each other……

Comment by Gohawks123 Friday, Dec 11, 20 @ 9:56 am
“Lame stream media”

Per your source, there were 12 instances in the 2018 election. 12. Only most of those were ballot petition or registration issues. Only 5 were ineligible or duplicate voting.

As Fixer said, it seems we have some pretty secure elections in Illinois with a clear lack of voter fraud. Who would have thought?

Comment by Guy Probably Friday, Dec 11, 20 @ 10:05 am
Agree with “don the legend”, how can 223 be missing signatures. Time for some training and new judges.

Comment by pool boy Friday, Dec 11, 20 @ 10:05 am
@pool boy, Macon County doesn’t have enough election judges as is. My hometown lost their precinct this year because there weren’t enough judges. Now voters have to go 5 miles to the next town over.

Comment by GV Friday, Dec 11, 20 @ 10:28 am
Which is worse, no election judges or bad election judges?

Comment by Bruce( no not him) Friday, Dec 11, 20 @ 11:02 am
==The lamestream media pretends actual fraud never happens, but the Heritage Foundation tracks it state-by-state, with links to news media coverage.==

To sum up:
1) The media has never made that claim.
2) In Illinois, 44 instances in the past 20 years over 30 elections (primaries, general, muni)…that is an average of 1.5 per election in a state with 8 million registered voters.

Comment by Pot calling kettle Friday, Dec 11, 20 @ 11:38 am
This all started because 3 ballots were found in a stack of things and left uncounted. They weren’t discovered until the county clerk had already certified the results. Had the 3 been counted then Root would be sheriff. The whole thing is a mess honestly.

Comment by Leaving Decatur Friday, Dec 11, 20 @ 11:55 am
So some commenters don’t find massive fraud, and don’t like the Heritage Foundation. Well, how much fraud, no matter what state, constitutes “enough fraud”. The lamestream media refused to even report some of the claims–unlike their jumping to report almost anything Biden/Harris said. The bias is obvious and repetitive. The ‘no fraud in elections’ narrative is obviously disproven by Heritage’s listings, even if they were not covering 2020 elections. The site does not claim to be all-inclusive; it is a starting point.

Comment by thisjustinagain Friday, Dec 11, 20 @ 12:37 pm
=== how much fraud, no matter what state, constitutes “enough fraud”.===

According to the *current* Attorney General of the United States, election fraud this cycle, as an example, was not found of any significance to change the outcome of the election.

How’s that?

Comment by Oswego Willy Friday, Dec 11, 20 @ 12:44 pm
=== The lamestream media refused to even report some of the claims–unlike their jumping to report almost anything Biden/Harris said.===

The Illinois Review might be more of your speed.

I guess Attorney General Barr is part of that liberal lamestream media protecting Biden and Harris?

To bring this back to the focus of the post, this “big brother is causing fraud in our elections” is phony, as much as its un-American and undercutting all fair and free elections… like this one too.

Comment by Oswego Willy Friday, Dec 11, 20 @ 12:48 pm
- thisjustinagain - Friday, Dec 11, 20 @ 12:37 pm:

Citing a discredited database does nothing to advance your arguments.

https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/article/heres-why-concerns-about-absentee-ballot-fraud-are-overhyped/

Here, from Fish v Kobach, is Hans von Spakovsky’s record in court. He created the Heritage database:

“The Court gives little weight to Mr. von Spakovsky’s opinion and report because they are premised on several misleading and unsupported examples of noncitizen voter registration, mostly outside the State of Kansas. His myriad misleading statements, coupled with his publicly stated preordained opinions about this subject matter, convinces the Court that Mr. von Spakovsky testified as an advocate and not as an objective expert witness.”

https://www.courthousenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/AK-Ruling.pdf

Comment by Precinct Captain Friday, Dec 11, 20 @ 2:19 pm