Last Minute Agenda Change to Make Primary Election Valid
As reported earlier, state law requires the County Board to approve changes in polling places.
County Clerk Mary McClellan’s Oversight May Invalidate Tuesday Election
McHenry County Clerk Mary McClellan, an attorney running for Circuit Judge, however, apparently failed to figure that out.
Jack Franks and Mary McClellan confer at the McHenry’s 2015 Fiesta Days Parade.
Reasons the General Assembly might have enacted that law could include that County Board members might object to making people drive six or more miles to vote. That was the case during previous elections.
I know I heard such a complaint from a veteran Republican Precinct Committeeman over the past few months.
In any event, it is obvious that the legislature did not desire to give dictatorial power to a
County Clerk to select polling places.
Now comes Board Chairman Jack Franks to the rescue.
At 3:53 Friday afternoon, Monday’s County Board agenda was changed to add
“Resolution ratifying the 2018 Primary Election polling locations.”
The County Board Voting on this was unnecessary.
It would be just like this blog to report Fake News.
Listen to the county board meeting, COW (committee on the whole)
I especially Love the part when Tirio Get’s his Big A$$ handed to him by McClellan, LOL!!
Mess With the Bull You Get the Horn!
All the Board Members who are either up for reelection or appear elsewhere on the ballot should publicly recuse themselves from voting on this due to a potential conflict of interest in the matter.
If there is even a quorum after that, the vote will be a very tight needle to thread.
The Members should make it clear what an absolutely absurd idea it was to handle the polling place changes in this manner.
At the very least, it might help sink Typhoid Mary’s judicial candidacy.
This is fake News!!!
The law states that the county board does not ratify the locations once they are set.
The fact of the matter if you were paying attention, “No county board approval is necessary once the redistricting is done.”
The census was done in 2010 and applied in 2011.
Cal why don’t you answer the question, When did the prior clerk of 52 years ever get board approval of locations? Oh the answer would not be what the sunshine blogger wants
The answer would be NEVER!!!!!
LOL!! What A Joke You Are, McHenry County blog
Billy Bob, we should welcome a vote from current board members as to open and transparent government!
Anyone who votes no to this, should be a No vote for them as county board member
Wait, what does Joe Tirio have to do with this?
And why are ‘Jason Billin’ and ‘OnlyTheFacts’ coming from the same IP address?
Did you see How wilcocks tried to come to tirio’s defense when he was getting schooled by McClellan?
Tirio was up against the ropes and the dumbass says, she’s out of time? she’s out of time??
wilcocks is a joke!
will cocks, LOL
LOL, good one otf!
Thank you sunshine blogger. This 2015 picture is solid proof of this monstrous conspiracy. Tic, tock, tic, tock, tic, tock…
Love what you said JB!!
Charming!
Let’s meet for coffee!
9:00 Starbucks in Crystal Lake sound Good?
Better make it 10:00, I’m going to sleep in.
Was Joe Tirio the one who pointed this oversight out to the board?
Clearly they’ve heeded his advice to ward off any drama.
If they didn’t, this could have cost the county millions in law suites. If Tirio is the one that found this, He just saved the Republican Party and the Chairman and the Clerk from losing face with another bad election by our inept Clerk!
Sounds Good OTF, see you there.
LOL, Tirio’s The Real Failure.
Can’t stand That Jerk!
So Smug and Smitten and No Clue at all.
How does He plan to be the next Clerk if he doesn’t Even understand Plain English?
LOL,@ Joe Tirio, LOL..
There’s always that book, How to be the County Clerk for Dummies.
LOL, Another good one OTF.
He would have been better off hiring his wife, But then again have you ever seen Her?
I wouldn’t Hire His Wife Either!, LOL!!
CHECK!, LOL!!
Cal, can you post that statute here and let us see it?
Donna, why aren’t you running again?
Are you by chance moving to Minnesota with Michael?
Do Tell.
Jason Has a Moving truck if you need one sweetie.
Jason Billin if you are right, then why would they be scrambling to get it on the agenda?
They wouldn’t bother if it wasn’t a risk to ignore this discovery. Judging by your comments it was Tirio that brought this forward. (?) The question is Why would you be angry about this or laughing at him for wanting the election to be legit?
Cal Skinner Tirio And Willcocks brought this forward as a political attack 4 days before the election on our county Clerk.
When did the prior clerk of 52 years ever get board approval of locations? NEVER!!!!!
This story was brought to my attention and I thought it might be interesting to get the word from the person who spoke it.
Starting from the beginning. Quite some time ago, I started reading statutes, guides and websites that are relevant to the Clerk’s position. I also struck up some friendships with current and former Clerks. Somewhere along the way, the idea that the County Board had to approve changes in polling places was stuck in my head. When the polling place changes occurred, I couldn’t recall where I had come across that concept. I asked Clerks in other counties and their responses were mixed. It seems that there isn’t a consensus on the subject. During my travels I came across this on the state board of elections (BOE) website:
https://www.elections.il.gov/VotingInformation/PollingPlaces.aspx
This told me I was on the right track. So, I went back to the statutes, guides etc. In the last half of last week, I called the BOE and spoke to Amber. I directed her to the web page above and asked her where this was in statute. She put me on hold for a bit and then came back and said she would have to check with someone and would get back to me. A few hours later I got the call from her and she provided me this:
http://www.ilga.gov/legislation/ilcs/ilcs4.asp?DocName=001000050HArt%2E+11&ActID=170&ChapterID=3&SeqStart=51400000&SeqEnd=52700000
The operative phrase from that statute is:
“The County Board in every case shall fix and establish the places for holding elections in its respective county and all elections shall be held at the places so fixed.”
While this text is nestled in a section that deals heavily in the processes for defining and redefining precincts, to my eye, there’s little room for interpretation in the statement above.
Over the next few days, I searched for other statute that might conflict with this and couldn’t find anything as plain as this. Tuesday evening. It occurred to me that we were running out of time if this meant what it seemed, and it needed to be addressed quickly. I drafted an email from my county email address to the county email addresses of the full County Board, Chairman Franks, Clerk McClellan, County Administrator Austin and States attorney Kenneally (see the copy from the email below).
The following day I attended the Internal Support and Facilities Committee meeting where I read a brief statement during public comment (text below). I’d tell you that you could go to the County Meeting portal to listen to it, but, interestingly, the recording starts after public comment.
Thursday, I attended the Committee of the Whole (COW) and gave a very similar monolog to the one given the prior day. I’d tell you that you could go and watch the video of that meeting (full board meetings are video recorded), but again, very interestingly, the video recording had a gap in it that omitted the Public Comment from Ms McClellan and I. They now have the audio available on the portal, if you would like to hear it for yourself.
Political “hay”:
During public comment at the COW, Ms. McClellan accused me of using this as a political ploy to create political “Hay”, as I recall. Nothing, could be farther from the truth. If I wanted to make political hay, I would have had it posted here, sent a robo call, maybe some mailers with public officials in masks. But what I did, was address an internal email to the people who could evaluate the risk, and act, if necessary.
Read the statute, read my documentation below and draw your own conclusions about the law and my course of action.
See you at the polls.
Joe Tirio
<>
Appearing before you today as an interested employee of the County and as a citizen.
BLOT: I believe that the County Board needs to approve the changed polling places
I’m not a lawyer, but after reading the code repeatedly, consulting with others, including the state board of elections, I can come to no other conclusion.
I considered asking the SA for an opinion, but I don’t believe I have standing to do so as Recorder, nor as citizen, nor as candidate. Seeing no other option, last night I emailed the full board, Chairman Franks, Clerk McClellan, County Administrator and States attorney Kenneally.
I would direct your attention first to the yellow/orange highlighted section on the 9th page where it reads “The County Board in every case shall fix and establish the places for holding elections in its respective county and all elections shall be held at the places so fixed”
On page 6, the code does refer to the election authority (clerk) changing polling places AFTER typical notification is given in newspapers etc as per Article 12. But this isn’t what we’re talking about here.
As I read this code several times, it became clear to me that the County Board were the only ones that could set polling places. IN fact, the term “County Board” is found 38 times to Election Authority’s nine times.
So what can be done?
I believe you can still add it to the Monday county board meeting agenda, discuss it and vote to approve it. It’s not ideal, but it would seem to satisfy the letter of the law. Obviously, I would encourage the committee chair to engage the SA, but do so quickly
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Fellow members of McHenry County Government,
An issue has come to my attention that I feel compelled to share.
According to 10 ILCS 5, It would appear that the County Board would need to approve the changes in polling locations.
The good news is, there is still time to correct this.
Attached, please find:
– the salient quote from the statute
– a link to the statute involved
– screenshot and link to the web page on the State Board of Elections website where the same sentiment is expressed.
Kindest Regards,
Joseph J. Tirio
McHenry County Recorder
Address from Illinois State Board of Elections site:
https://www.elections.il.gov/VotingInformation/PollingPlaces.aspx
Quote from the statute:
“The County Board in every case shall fix and establish the places for holding elections in its respective county and all elections shall be held at the places so fixed.”
Link to the statute:
http://www.ilga.gov/legislation/ilcs/ilcs4.asp?DocName=001000050HArt%2E+11&ActID=170&ChapterID=3&SeqStart=51400000&SeqEnd=52700000
####
@ Grapevine, are you trying to say McClusterdrunk, is crazy… and drunk texting yourself on the blog?
One thing for sure is, she obviously has an obsession with ‘cocks’.
Class class class. Great job blog.
@Nob sent me – apparently as much as Eddie has an obsession with the younger women that work in the office
When is the next meeting?
I cant wait to see Tirio there blowing Hot Air around the room again.
Hopefully wilcocks LOL! will be there too, lol
@ Nob sent me, You must have been talking about Karen Tirio when you said “One thing for sure is, she obviously has an obsession with ‘cocks’”.
What’s up with the 1:05 and the 1:26AM Posts?
Most Decent folks are asleep at that Hr.
Outstanding work, Joe Tirio. Why are they so afraid of you? Don’t they like transparency or truth???
And in ALL reality…Joe is NOT running against Mary, so why would he need to create political “HAY”? His opponent is no threat to him at the polls. She thinks she can do what she wants WHENEVER she wants without consequence, and he is a stand up guy calling foul! Way to go Joe! WAY TO GO!
Exceptionally good catch, Mr. Tirio. Reminds me of ‘Legend of Zorro.’
Synopsis of the movie:
In 1851, nine years after the events of the first film, California is voting on whether to join the United States of America as a state. Alejandro de la Vega, as Zorro, foils a plot to steal the ballots.
Tirio foiled a baffoon move (or oversight) on Mcclellans part that could’ve deemed our Election as illegal. She should thank him.