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* Daily Herald…
A DuPage County judge has ordered a full recount of the November race for DuPage County auditor, ruling there are enough ballots in question to potentially overturn the results.
“Any in-precinct ballot that is not initialed shall be deemed defective and not counted,” Judge Craig R. Belford wrote in a written ruling Wednesday.
According to the initial count, incumbent Republican Bob Grogan lost to Democratic challenger William “Bill” White by 75 votes, 233,121 to 233.046.
Grogan sought a recount, claiming in court filings that an election judge at a Downers Grove Township polling place failed to initial all ballots as required by Illinois law. In Downers Grove Township precincts 76, 118, and 130, a total of 436 uninitialed ballots were cast, 259 for White and 177 for Grogan, documents state
The ruling is here. What a mess.
posted by Rich Miller
Monday, May 17, 21 @ 9:51 am
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Details, details.
Comment by DuPage Monday, May 17, 21 @ 9:55 am
Wait, hundreds of voters’ votes don’t count because an election judge screwed up?
Comment by Watcher of the Skies Monday, May 17, 21 @ 10:00 am
YOUR VOTE* MATTERS
*except those that are not processed correctly, which will be excluded.
Comment by DupageDad Monday, May 17, 21 @ 10:07 am
I’ve been an election judge in DuPage for several election cycles and they drill into you that you MUST initial all ballots. Must must must. No excuses here. Agree, what a mess.
Comment by election judge Monday, May 17, 21 @ 10:09 am
An election judge(s) should not be able to control who wins an election by not initialing the ballots.
Comment by M Monday, May 17, 21 @ 10:20 am
== An election judge(s) should not be able to control who wins an election by not initialing the ballots. ==
And how you chose to bind your petitions should not decide if you appear on a ballot, but here in Illinois is does.
Someday a top to bottom review of election law in Illinois should happen (including lowering petition numbers) but there is no advantage to those in office for it to happen.
Comment by OneMan Monday, May 17, 21 @ 10:49 am
A mistake by one election judge is about to cost hundreds of people their vote. At this point, I think I trust mail-in ballots more than in-person, because there’s so many opportunities for human error at the precinct.
Comment by NIU Grad Monday, May 17, 21 @ 10:54 am
Not a mistake by one election judge. Mistake by ALL election judges of both parties in that precinct.
Comment by Put the fun in unfunded Monday, May 17, 21 @ 10:56 am
More evidence of election fraud. S/
Comment by Bruce( no not him) Monday, May 17, 21 @ 11:00 am
What’s next for Grogan? Bamboo and UV rays?
Comment by Precinct Captain Monday, May 17, 21 @ 11:05 am
“Any in-precinct ballot that is not initialed shall be deemed defective and not counted”
Under this ruling, which appears legally sound, a bigoted election judge could invalidate every ballot cast by a woman or person of color (for purposes of recounts).
– MrJM
Comment by @misterjayem Monday, May 17, 21 @ 11:09 am
the great irony here is that Grogan was in charge of the Downers Grove Township Republicans and had he properly trained the Republican judges they would have caught this on election night. And yet, he wants another term as auditor. Another Republican leader with zero attention to details and execution. Epic fail.
Comment by dirksen Monday, May 17, 21 @ 11:23 am
Sounds like a good opportunity to eliminate the Elected Auditor position, an outdated and expensive office that most counties have already axed.
Comment by Anon Monday, May 17, 21 @ 11:49 am
*dirksen
Township Chairs (of either party) don’t train election judges, the County Clerk’s office handles that responsibility.
Comment by Soapbox Derby Monday, May 17, 21 @ 12:14 pm
Republican voter nullification
Comment by Rauner Monday, May 17, 21 @ 12:41 pm
I agree with eliminating the position. By the time the lawyers are done with this - it will be appealed after all - DuPage will have paid out several years of Auditor’s salary. So much for ’small government’ conservatives.
Comment by train111 Monday, May 17, 21 @ 12:42 pm
If you notice, no one is saying to look at the number of ballots vs the number of voters that day. We don’t have a right to vote in Illinois because our ballots can be tossed if a judge doesn’t initial them. When we vote in person we sign in and signatures are matched with what is on file. But that doesn’t matter because if a judge doesn’t initial the ballot it won’t count. I think we need a system the defers to the voter.
Comment by Constitutional Right Monday, May 17, 21 @ 1:06 pm
Constitutional is right. I was an election judge this year and in fact spent most of my time at the station initialing ballots and handing them to voters. The blank ballots are hand counted before the polls open and after the polls close (when they are retrieved from the machine) to prevent someone from “dumping in thousands of bamboo-infused ballots from China” for example.
Every single piece of paper in the kits is accounted for and filed in the proper envelopes, and all election judges from both parties are required to sign/certify the counts. When the ballots are retrieved from the tabulator machines after the polls close, the judges are supposed to inspect every ballot to make sure they are initialed. If there was a problem on election day, it should have been apparent that night and documented in the logs that the judges are required to fill out & certify after closing the polls and before delivering the precinct’s ballots to the county election officials.
TL:DR - since all of these processes happen under the watchful eyes of judges from both parties, I don’t see how this happened, or why it’s only becoming an issue today. Something don’t smell right here.
Comment by Dysfunction Junction Monday, May 17, 21 @ 1:34 pm
Incredible that so many voters will be disenfranchised because a judge didn’t do their job properly. Would Bob Grogan be okay if his ballot was thrown out over something like this? That’s not fraud, it’s incompetence on the election judge.
Comment by SuburbanRepublican Monday, May 17, 21 @ 1:39 pm
This is not the only election in DuPage County that has/had issues. Due to a late ruling (Friday before the election) the Supremes ruled that an incumbent on a already printed ballot was disqualified and that any vote made for the incumbent were not to be counted, mind you that there were early voting ballots and mail in ballots already in hand….another instance of vote made in good faith not being counted.
Comment by Cable Line Beer Gardener Monday, May 17, 21 @ 2:14 pm
The point here is to make sure the ballot voted by the voter is the ballot issued by the judge. The goal is to protect against voter intimidation with smuggled ballots. The judge issuing the ballot as well as the judge who receives the ballot back from the voter should confirm in real time that everything’s good.
Comment by Socially DIstant watcher Monday, May 17, 21 @ 2:49 pm
In Cook County, the scanner rejects the ballot if it is not initialed.
Comment by George Monday, May 17, 21 @ 3:28 pm
Mistakes shouldn’t count against voters who did the right thing.
Exact draconian penalties on the election officials who made the mistakes (if they were mistakes). Penalize the official who failed to train personnel correctly.
But don’t penalize voters.
If there is a preponderance of the evidence the ballots were introduced to the process fraudulently, then the ballots aren’t attached to voters.
But if the count matches and there’s no evidence of substitution then count the ballots.
Comment by Tengoku Tenuki Monday, May 17, 21 @ 4:05 pm
In Illinois, when handed their ballot, the voter should check for initials, and if there are none,
hand it back to the judge to have it initialed.
In some election jurisdicitons, if you vote by machine, there is no initialing; the machine records each vote on a paper tape in the machine, so nothing to initial
Comment by truthtopower Monday, May 17, 21 @ 5:37 pm
Subjective options aside, case law, statutes and precedent all point to the ballots must be signed by an election judge. As noted above, it is drilled into the election judges training curriculum. As an aside, perhaps Mr White, a lawyer by trade, shouldn’t be representing himself in this case and should seek an attorney with election law experience.
Comment by Boris Gudenough Monday, May 17, 21 @ 6:48 pm