McHenry County Blog

A press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office:

U.S. ATTORNEY’S OFFICE TO CONDUCT ELECTION DAY MONITORING ELECTION DAY HOTLINE: (312) 469-6157

CHICAGO — The U.S. Attorney’s Office will monitor the general election in Chicago and surrounding suburbs on Tuesday, Nov. 6, 2012, Gary S. Shapiro, Acting United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, announced today.

As part of the monitoring effort, the office will operate a hotline for candidates or the public to call to report any complaints relating to voting.

In addition, Assistant U.S. Attorneys and other personnel will be monitoring certain polling places, while other attorneys will be available to respond to complaints as needed.

The hotline number, staffed on Election Day only, is (312) 469-6157.

“This office has a long tradition of monitoring the polls on Election Day to help protect the integrity of the voting process,” Mr. Shapiro said. “No one who is entitled to vote should in any way be inhibited from doing so, and we stand ready to ensure a fair process for all.”

Assistant U.S. Attorney Stephen Heinze coordinates the office’s election monitoring efforts and subsequent investigations, if any, in consultation with the Justice Department. The Chicago Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the U.S. Marshals Service will assist in this effort by following-up, if necessary, on any election fraud and voting rights complaints.

Complaints about ballot access problems or discrimination can also be made directly to the Civil Rights Division’s Voting Section in Washington at 1-800-253-3931 or 202-307-2767.

Federal law protects against such crimes as intimidating or bribing voters, buying and selling votes, altering vote tallies, stuffing ballot boxes, and marking ballots for voters against their wishes or without their input. It also contains special protections for the rights of voters and provides that they can vote free from acts that intimidate or harass them. For example, actions of persons designed to interrupt or intimidate voters at polling places by questioning or challenging them, or by photographing or videotaping them, under the pretext that these are actions to uncover illegal voting may violate federal voting rights law. Further, federal law protects the right of voters to mark their own ballot or to be assisted by a person of their choice.

Violations of federal voting rights statutes carry penalties ranging from 1 to 10 years imprisonment and fines up to $250,000.

Barrington Hills resident Sharon Meroni has made ballot integrity a major goal in her life.

Colleague Steve Boulton attended her presentation to the Chicago Board of Elections and wrote the following article, reprinted here with permission of the author

Defend The Vote: Great News from the Chicago Board of Election Commissioners on Ballot Security Improvements

Defend The Vote had an excellent day yesterday at a long-awaited session with the full Chicago Board of Election Commissioners. Sharon Meroni, Executive Director of Defend The Vote, addressed the Commissioners on behalf of the organization, dong a simply marvelous job.

Sharon is now very knowledgeable about the details, procedures and voting equipment as a result of one and one-half years of nearly full time investigation and analysis.

She is now bringing that hard-won knowledge to bear in seeking key changes to improve ballot security.

She quite obviously has the respect of the Board and its staff, I believe because she has “walked the walk” on ballot integrity and can speak to them at their own sophisticated levels, and now knows the topics in detail.

At the meeting, to the stunned but happy surprise of Sharon, myself (as Chairman of Defend The Vote), and our assembled supporting spectators, we learned that the Commissioners have not only considered the deep concerns raised by Defend the Vote over the past months, they have acted on more than one with important change to improve ballot security in Chicago beginning now in 2012.

Sometimes fighting the good fight gets results!

1. Precinct Polling Place Ballot Security. Over the past two years, Defend The Vote and the Chicago Republican Party conducted a lengthy investigation of ballot security protocols for polling places and the security measures used to secure ballot boxes, finding major avenues for vote fraud.

Sharon’s work was financed by Champion News.

Then, in April 2011, Defend The Vote used this newly gained knowledge to conduct a surprise audit of Chicago polling places in the Chicago Municipal Runoff election.

In assessing well over 200 precincts, the Audit found major lapses in ballot security at 90% of the polling places, and 58% of the polling places had unsealed ballot boxes. The findings were put in a 43 page report by DTV Executive Director Sharon Meroni that was published in the peer review Journal of Physical Security, of the Argonne National Laboratory.

As a direct result of that work and the Audit, the Board has substantially revised and upgraded its polling place security procedures, particularly with regard to the multiple security seals used on ballot box equipment, which was a major area of concern.

The Board is even going so far as to buy new seals which will be more difficult to compromise, and will be recording serial numbers of all seals on all ballot boxes, thereby closing a major security loophole.

From now on, any seals removed and/or replaced for any reason must be kept and tendered back to the Board, along with explanations. It is a major victory for ballot security in Chicago!

2. Early Voting. A huge ruckus erupted at one Early Voting site in Chicago in the 2010 General Election, in the 35th Ward (Logan Square).

It was based on concerns that correct procedures were not being followed by the site supervisor.

Chicago GOP Chairman Eloise Gerson was a near-daily visitor at the the 35th Ward site to inspect the voting, and I myself was forced to spend many hours poll watching there in October 2010 to keep things on the straight and narrow.

As a result of that situation, and a resulting further investigation by Defend the Vote and the Chicago Republican Party, sharp concern was raised over the fact that the Chicago Board of Election Commissioners only used employees to run Early Voting sites, not actual sworn and qualified Election Judges.

The employees are not required to meet the qualifications of Election Judges.

The concern was only heightened when it was discovered in an investigation in late 2010 and early 2011 that foreign national employees of the Board were acting as supervisors and clerks at Early Voting sites, frequently deciding if U.S. citizens could vote or not.

One such employee was the very Supervisor at the 35th Ward Early Voting Site who was the center of the controversy in 2010.

Later in 2011, Chairman Gerson issued a lengthy letter to the Board detailing our findings and demanding that the Board scrap the use of employees (though legally permitted under the Election Code), to use only qualified and sword Election Judges at Early Voting sites.

The Board has agreed to make key changes.

• First, the Board has agreed that no foreign national Board employees will be assigned to work at Early Voting sites.
• Second, one Democratic and one Republican Election Judge will be present at each Early Voting site, with full power to make complaint and demand action by the Board and its field investigators, as a check on abuses at Early Voting sites.

We see this as a major improvement in the integrity of the Early Voting system!

3. Electronic Voting and Electronic Vote Counting. This was a lengthy and open discussion at the Board Meeting.

Sharon expressed the substantial overall concerns of DTV with electronic voting (which is banned in many countries, such as Germany) based on possible ease of tampering, giving specific examples of what we see as flaws in the current system.

The Board would not agree that electronic voting was demonstrably insecure, but agreed to continued discussion with DTV to air and investigate the matters we have raised, which run into key specifics of current machine operation, as well as known examples and testimony regarding the ease of computer tampering with vote counts.

The City and Cook County have invested heavily in new electronic systems, so substantial evidence of flaws will be required.

This must be considered a work in progress.

In all, we believe the Board has made concrete, important and genuine steps to address ballot security concerns.

Just as importantly, the Board welcomed constructive engagement with DTV on the issues we have raised.

As Chairman of Defend The Vote, at the close of the public discussion I rose and thanked the Commissioners not only for the important improvements implemented for 2012, but also for their openness to dialogue and suggestions.

There is far to go, as several important areas of concern and investigation remain to be explored.

But this was a great start and a very good day for Chicago voters!

Back when Tom Roeser was the Public Affairs Director with Quaker Oats, he helped form Operation LEAP.

The acronym stood for “Legal Elections in All Precincts.”

Operation LEAP died, but there is a linear descendent called “Defend the Vote” run by a McHenry County woman named Sharon Meroni.

Her groups goals are broader than Operation LEAP’s, but because she is not a liberal the Chicago media gives it no attention…at least that I have seen.

Meroni, who can be reached at info@defendthevote.com, wants to share the following message, which I received today:

I am the Founder and Director at Defend the Vote. Defend the Vote is an Illinois based organization with the mission to empower citizens to protect elections. I am a McHenry County resident. You have covered some of our activities and I thank you for that.

I wish to provide you and your readers with a link to my post relating to the ballot challenge of 5 candidates that applied for ballot position for the Illinois legislature in the 52nd District House Representative and 26th District Senator.

These are the legislative bodies that should be involved in the issue driving my action.

Who is responsible to assure candidates on the ballot are constitutionally eligible, and thus legally qualified?

I am not talking petition signatures…

In the statement of candidacy the candidate self affirms they are legally qualified for the position. The public record holds proof for each aspect of legal qualification, except one.

It does not hold proof of US Citizenship.

Yet, the Illinois Constitution requires US Citizenship to qualify for ballot placement.

[Meroni challenged the candidacy of Independent candidate for McHenry County Circuit Court Judge Sally Wiggins in 2010.  You can read how she dropped the challenge once Wiggins presented her birth certificate here.]

My research uncovered and proved that no one checks in Illinois. The title of my blog post is “If not you, who?” [In the post, Meroni tells of her challenges to the candidacies of all three Republican candidates for State Representative in the 52nd District and both candidates for State Senate in the 26th District, where she lives.]

No one in Illinois verifies citizenship qualifications for any state or federal office voted on in Illinois.

Defend the Vote is involved with ballot security in three areas:

• Ballot Access,
• The Voter, and
• Casting the Vote

This issue addresses ballot access.

We have active programs addressing the security of the vote and also about voter registration roles.

Along with Champion News, Defend the Vote was responsible for the audit of Chicago elections in 2011.

Our security assessment was conducted by assessing precincts on 11 security measures during the April 2011 Municipal Runoff election in Chicago.

We found 215 out of 239 precincts failed on one or more critical security measure: 139 precincts failed to seal the ballot box. ([An article about this study can be found here.]

The report outlining this explosive research was peer reviewed and published by the Argonne National Laboratory’s prestigious Journal of Physical Security.

As a result of our research, security expert, Dr. Roger Johnston found

security protocols protecting the vote in Chicago to be “wholly inadequate,” essentially failing 100% of the time to prove the ballot is secure.

We are conducting a state-wide assessment of elections in Illinois (Voter Auditor Pollwatcher program – VAP) and we are actively lining up Voter Auditor Pollwatchers to evaluate the security of the vote across the state of Illinois. (Voters we welcome you to join in – it takes about 20 minutes after you vote!)

We are researching election security across the state with an emphasis on security procedures; assessing effectiveness in theory and in practice. We are working with every election authority in the state (Letter to Count Clerks) and are well on our way with most major election jurisdictions (based on population) covered for this 2011 March Primary VAP program.

This week we will begin to collect information on how Illinois secures the military vote.

Ultimately we will research and report on aspects related to the security of Illinois’ military, absentee, early, nursing home and Election Day voting.

Defend the Vote has already proven Illinois does not audit Early Voting.

18% of the vote in Illinois has never been reviewed for accuracy. I wish I could tell every Illinois resident this fact.

We DON’T audit early voting returns AND We DON’T audit the software recording the early vote.

Never… Not once!

18% of the vote in Illinois is done through early voting. That percentage is growing.

I speak frequently about this issue. Defend the Vote is non-partisan; empowering citizens to protect elections. Please join us!

There is so much to do.

A press release from Defend the Vote:

AUDIT REPORT PEER REVIEWED AND PUBLISHED BY THE JOURNAL OF PHYSICAL SECURITY

How difficult is it for the dead to vote in Illinois?

Defend the Vote tested this question in an April 5th audit of Chicago elections. Results were complied into a report.  This report, Vulnerability Assessment and Security Audit of Election Day Polling Place Procedures for the April 5, 2011 Municipal Elections in Chicago, Illinois, by Sharon Meroni, was peer-reviewed and published by the prestigious Journal of Physical Security. The Journal of Physical Security is published by Argonne National Laboratory’s Vulnerability Assessment Team.

On April 5, 2011 a group of citizens from various political parties and the tea party, equipped with audit questionnaires based on the Chicago Board of Election’s, Election Judge Training Guide, visited 239 polling places in Chicago to score the CBoE’s compliance with their own security protocols. The objective of the security assessment (the Audit) was to test enforcement of security protocols that are in place to protect our ballot.

The results were stunning: 210 precincts (91%) failed on one or more of the 11 critical security measures that were evaluated, 66% of them failed on more than one measure.  59% of the time, the CBoE failed to secure the ballot box. 

Included in the report is an analysis of the security around the memory devices and the seals that safe guard them. The stack of boxes pictured below next to the open door, contain all of the memory devices used in voting equipment on Election Day in the City of Chicago.  Each box has the memory devices for one Ward.  These boxes were observed in this location during two separate trips to the warehouse.

Roger G. Johnston, Ph.D., CPP, is head of the Vulnerability Assessment Team (VAT) at Argonne National Laboratory. Dr. Johnston has an expertise in ballot security. In reviewing our report, he stated,

“The paper by Sharon Meroni discusses an analysis of election security in Illinois. The findings are disturbing and relevant to elections elsewhere in the country. Election integrity is a homeland security issue and we had better start taking it seriously.”

Further, Dr. Johnston found that “Chicago Board of Elections security protocols are wholly inadequate in securing the ballot.”

Defend the Vote’s mission is to empower citizens to protect elections.  Along with our growing team of partners, we believe that elections should be governed by “Best Practices”  that are based on security over the chain of custody of the ballot and all equipment related to running elections.

With the release of this report we are introducing the VAP program (Voter Auditor Pollwatcher) in Illinois.  This is the first-ever citizen run audit of elections in Illinois. Across the entire State of Illinois, voters will be trained on security for their polling place. Once trained, VAPers will be given credentials and a scoring sheet to take a snapshot of security at their poll. The audit will take about 20 minutes and pollwatchers can be credentialed for multiple polling places.  Audit sheets will be returned to Defend the Vote for analysis and further actions.

The VAP program is only one of several programs Defend the Vote is sponsoring. Defend the Vote first discovered and reported that Illinois has never audited Early Voting for accuracy of the vote. Early voting, 18% of Illinois vote, has never had the paper trail and the electronic tally reconciled. Separately, we reported that the Chicago Board of Elections employs non-citizens to run early voting locations, and that the I-9 employment verification forms for these employees are not in compliance with federal law.

The April audit was endorsed by Champion News and Jack Roeser.

For more information, please contact me at info@defendthevote.com 847 -382-1100 (office)

A press release from the Huntley Tea Party:

Public Forum on Fraud in the Election Process

For years now we have heard stories of problems with our Election Process. There was the “hanging chads” in Florida, the Acorn issues when registering voters and recently a problem in Chicago where 59% of the ballot boxes were not secured properly.

With Primaries coming up in March of 2012 and a major election in November, we must ensure that we have a valid Election Process in our local area.

On August 22nd, the Huntley Area Tea Party will host Sharon Meroni, Chairman of “Defend the Vote” at a public forum.

This will be held at the Cosman Center in Deicke Park, 12015 Mill Street in Huntley.

Sharon will be speaking on Fraud in the Election Process and what citizens can do about this problem.

For additional information you can visit the HATP web site at www.huntleyteaparty.com