Press Release

For Immediate Release

Contact: Greg Freerksen, Attorney for the Democratic Party of DuPage County

Whitfield & McGann, 111 E. Wacker Drive, Ste 2600, Chicago, IL 60601

(312) 251-9700

 

DuPage Democrats Uncover Voting Irregularities, Outcomes Still Uncertain

Election Commission Claims Technical Glitches, Human Glitches More Likely

 

Greg Freerksen, one of the attorneys for the Democratic Party of DuPage County, today announced that the voting irregularities in the November 7 election are not mere "technical glitches" as has been reported by the DuPage County Election Commission.  According to Freerksen, "The irregularities are definitely human errors, not technical or computer errors.  Essentially Election Judges failed to follow the procedures which are designed to protect the integrity of the ballots cast."  However, Freerksen agrees with the Election Commission that the mishandling of the election materials may not have affected the outcome of any particular races. "It is simply too early to tell for sure," says Freerksen, "We will have to await the report from the reconciliation recount which is being conducted today."

 

At the heart of this controversy is fact that approximately 19 computer memory cards were not returned by Election Judges from polling locations in DuPage County on election night. The Election Judges simply did not follow the instructions, which commanded them to return the memory cards along with other election materials on election night.

 

The computer memory cards contain the ballot results from the voting machines at the polling places.  "These memory cards contain the data which tells the Election Commission how the voters cast there ballots in the polling locations.  Essentially, the results from these locations could not be included in the vote tallies on Election Night because the computer memory cards were not returned by the Election Judges from the polling locations.  The main concern is that the memory cards were left unprotected overnight and were subject to possible tampering.”

 

The missing cards were retrieved by teams of Election Judges beginning at 8:00 am Wednesday morning.

 

As of Wednesday afternoon, there was a written report that one memory card was still missing.

 

It was the understanding of lawyers for the Democratic Party of DuPage County that the memory cards, which were retrieved by the Election Commission, were uploaded into the computer.  Therefore, the vote totals should now include the missing votes from the memory cards.

 

The written reports show that some of the seals on the memory cards and some of the seals on the metal lockers, which hold the voting machines, were broken in several instances. This is a cause for concern to the Democratic Party of DuPage County and its candidates. This could be tampering, or may simply be sloppy work on the part of Election Judges.

 

A reconciliation recount is now underway, and attorneys for the Democratic Party of DuPage County will attempt to determine whether some individuals tampered with the voting cards overnight, and prior to the time the memory cards were retrieved on Wednesday morning.

 

The reconciliation team may be able to use the non-volatile memory of the voting machine if no memory card was found.

 

There are approximately 19 polling stations involved, which include 45 precincts in which memory cards from the voting machines may not have been included in the counts posted on the Election Commission website. 

 

These polling centers all had multiple precincts and they were from all over the County. But, many are highly Democratic precincts, which could affect the outcome of several local races. Joe Vosicky's State Representative race in the 46th District is one example, but depending on which cards were missing, several others may be included

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The Democratic Party of DuPage County is awaiting the results of the reconciliation recount before deciding any further action.

 

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