McHenry County Blog

Argonne's Journal of Physical Security in which Sharon Meroni's most recent article is published.

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)

Sharon Meroni of Defend the Vote addresses Crystal Lake Tea Party members.

Without ballot integrity, democracy disappears.

If you can’t be sure your vote is being counted correctly and only votes of others voting legally are being counted as well, what trust would you have in the governmental system?

The Crystal Lake Tea Party met last night at the Park District’s Park Place to hear the findings of those who have investigated the situation. Below is Tea Party leader Mary Alger’s report on what happened:

“Citizens gathered at Park Place in Crystal Lake, IL and were completely drawn in by 3 speakers that presented the problems we face in election integrity and were given a solid citizen action and legal plan to fix it.

“Sharon Meroni of www.defendthevote.com tracked election processes & procedures in the City of Chicago which took her on an odyssey of adventures and discovered jaw dropping revelations.

Chicago Republican Election Attorney Steve Bolton speaks about ballot integrity problems of early voting.

“Unsecured ballots, illegal election workers, and problems with the voting machines were but a few of the problems found.

“Potentially the biggest problem is that there is virtually no auditing of early voting although Illinois law says that 5% of all votes must be audited.

“Based on many of these findings, Chicago GOP Election attorney, Steve
Boulton, spoke of his bringing several legal actions to the Chicago Board of
Elections to seek remedy.

“His letter can be found here.

“Evert Evertsen, a naturalized US citizen since 1984, knows how precious the
right to vote in this country is and has been protecting the process for
seven years by being an election judge and training poll watchers.

“These 3 speakers compelled all citizens to get involved in securing the
voting process. Sign up sheets were filled out that will allow citizens to
become highly trained and effective poll watchers, election judges, learn to
use the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) to seek election information and
to clean up the voter registration rolls.

“These actions will become a new focus of TEA Parties throughout the country and with www.illinoistea.org affiliated TEA Parties in our state.

“Simply put, without the sanctity and assurance of our vote being counted we lose our Republic.

One of the missions of the TEA Party is taking citizen action from the street corner and bringing it to the polling place.

“We will start in Illinois of all places to show the nation that it CAN be done starting HERE, starting NOW.”

Mary Alger
Crystal Lake TEA Party

Considering the recount in the Wisconsin Supreme Court race, folks locally might be interested in the following Flag Day meeting.

A press release from the Crystal Lake Tea Party:

Who: The Crystal Lake Tea Party

What: The CL Tea Party will present a program that will empower the citizenry to ensure fair and accurate recording of the vote and to properly secure it.

Park Place at the corner of Oak and Woodstock Streets in Crystal Lake is where the meeting will be held.

Why: A non-partisan audit of voting precincts during the April 5th, 2011 election in Chicago revealed issues of non compliant ballot security procedures to be documented at an astounding 90%. Real vulnerabilities in securing the equipment and ballots were revealed and documented. Come see what was revealed and learn what you must do as a citizen to assure that your local election is without these revealed flaws. With passion and commitment from the citizenry this program can become a national campaign leading up to the 2012 election and beyond.

When: Tuesday, June 14th (Flag Day)

Time: 7-9 PM

Where: Park Place – 406 W. Woodstock St. Crystal Lake, IL

Fee: Free – donations accepted

McHenry County Clerk Kathie Schultz

With absentee ballots, you never know if they will be returned.

But with early voting being electronic in McHenry County, once a person casts his or her ballot, it’s a done deal.

McHenry County Clerk Kathie Schultz reports that as of Tuesday 6,789 people have cast early ballots.

Another 2,814 have absentee ballots.

There are 202,033 registered voters, so 4.7% have already voted.

The McHenry County State’s Attorney has captured the cost incurred when the Illinois State Board of Elections failed to place Circuit Court Judge Maureen McIntyre on the ballot. Lou Bianchi’s press release follows:

“Louis A. Bianchi, McHenry County State’s Attorney, is pleased to announce that the McHenry County State’s Attorney’s Office just recovered a judgment in the amount $37,806.75 from the State of Illinois on behalf of the County, and has deposited this amount with the McHenry County Treasurer.

“This money was recovered as a result of the State’s Attorney’s Office filing and pursuing a claim against the State of Illinois and the Illinois State Board of Elections in the Court of Claims. The claim arose due to an error made by the Illinois State Board of Elections in the November 7, 2006 judicial retention ballot for Circuit Court Judge Maureen McIntyre.

“The error occurred when the Illinois State Board of Elections mistakenly omitted the Honorable Judge McIntyre’s name from the McHenry County ballots.

“Therefore, McHenry County and the County Clerk Katherine Schultz, had to arrange and pay for the re-printing of the ballots on an expedited basis in order to have them prepared in time for the election.

“Shortly after the retention election was held, the State’s Attorney’s Office promptly filed this claim, which has now resulted in the reimbursement of all funds expended by the County for the re-printing of the ballots. These funds will be returned to the County General Fund.”

The money is a result of a claim filed with the Illinois Court of Claims. The county won about nine months ago.

The way the process works is that such awards appear in separate line items in an appropriations bill. The bill was probably signed in July and, with the shortage of money, the check just arrived.