Local Politicians Call For Election Monitoring

From the Office of Jack Franks: County Board Chairman Jack Franks and State Representative David McSweeney have joined together to ask County Clerk and Recorder Joe Tirio to formally request state monitoring of the 2020 primary and general elections. Their announcement follows a letter sent by County Board member Michael Vijuk expressing his concerns about McHenry County’s election integrity to Illinois State Board of Elections Executive Director Steven Sandvoss. Vijuk cited significant problems with the 2016 primary, the 2018 midterms, and the April consolidated election earlier this year.

“We’ve now had three elections under two consecutive county clerks in which major issues
plagued the process and disenfranchised voters,” Franks, D-Marengo, said. “I share Mr. Vijuk’s
concerns regarding next year’s presidential election, which is sure to see heavy voter turnout.
The involvement of nonpartisan, outside observers who can provide technical assistance will
assure county voters that they will have no problem checking in at their polling places, that their
ballots will be correct, and that every single vote will be counted.”

Technology problems forced voting hours in the 2016 primary to be extended by emergency
court order, and a number of races took days to tabulate. More than 33,000 early votes were not
counted in 2018 – when Franks discovered the undercount and the votes were tabulated, a
County Board candidate who had thought he had lost by 187 votes discovered he had in fact
defeated the incumbent by more than 600.

In the April 2019 election, the first supervised by Tirio, a referendum question for a tax increase was changed incorrectly after the ballots were certified, and the problem wasn’t caught until hours after the polls opened. In another jurisdiction, voters were asked to weigh in on a nonexistent school board race. McSweeney called the state board to request investigations after the 2016 and 2018 elections.

“The Illinois State Board of Elections is aware of the problems McHenry County has had with its
elections, but under the law, I believe it cannot send monitors unless Mr. Tirio formally requests
them. I urge him to do so for both the March 17 primary and the Nov. 3 general election. The
voters of McHenry County deserve to know that their votes will matter,” McSweeney said.

This press release was produced by the Office of Jack Franks. The views expressed here are the author's own.