The results of over 6,100 votes across the state of Illinois are now being questioned in the wake of the November election.
According to the Illinois State Board of Elections that's how many votes were thrown out due to signatures that could not be verified.
Signature verification is used to prevent ballot harvesting and other types of voter fraud.
Mark Shelden
Such an incident occurred in Calumet.
In 2003, then-candidate Michelle Markiewicz Qualkinbush sued Gregory Skubisz alleging there were irregularities in absentee ballots and campaign personnel giving improper assistance to disabled voters.
Skubisz admitted during a trial that his campaign made an effort to obtain absentee ballots. However, he denied there was assistance given to voters by campaign personnel.
The judge found that the absentee voter campaign was aggressive and intentional and that Michael Kaszak, who was part of Skubisz’s campaign, “poisoned” some of the absentee voter’s votes. The court subtracted every one of those votes from Skubisz’s total and Qualkinbush was declared the winner.
Signature verification has been an issue in other states as of late
In Clark County, Nevada, a columnist with the Las Vegas Review-Journal revealed following the Nov. 3 election that he had signed the names of eight voters on ballots in his own handwriting.
Just yesterday, one of the races in the November election failed to be certified due to discrepancies that may have swayed the tally.
Champaign County Recorder Mark Shelden recognized more than 6,195 non-matching signatures in 30 jurisdictions in Illinois, with more than 1,700 of those in DuPage County alone.
The signature not matching means that someone other than the registered voters may have filled out those ballots.
Jurisdiction Name | Ballot Reject Code | Count Of Ballot Reject Code |
Adams County | Non Matching Signature | 4 |
Boone County | Non Matching Signature | 78 |
Champaign County | Non Matching Signature | 228 |
City of Chicago | Non Matching Signature | 653 |
City of Galesburg | Non Matching Signature | 13 |
City of Rockford | Non Matching Signature | 60 |
Cook County | Non Matching Signature | 647 |
DeKalb County | Non Matching Signature | 53 |
Douglas County | Non Matching Signature | 1 |
DuPage County | Non Matching Signature | 1717 |
Fayette County | Non Matching Signature | 19 |
Franklin County | Non Matching Signature | 4 |
Hamilton County | Non Matching Signature | 10 |
Jefferson County | Non Matching Signature | 5 |
Kankakee County | Non Matching Signature | 33 |
Kendall County | Non Matching Signature | 92 |
Lake County | Non Matching Signature | 368 |
Logan County | Non Matching Signature | 3 |
Macon County | Non Matching Signature | 66 |
Macoupin County | Non Matching Signature | 5 |
Marion County | Non Matching Signature | 3 |
McHenry County | Non Matching Signature | 419 |
Monroe County | Non Matching Signature | 17 |
Montgomery County | Non Matching Signature | 1 |
Peoria County | Non Matching Signature | 309 |
Sangamon County | Non Matching Signature | 10 |
St. Clair County | Non Matching Signature | 16 |
Will County | Non Matching Signature | 1317 |
Williamson County | Non Matching Signature | 30 |
Winnebago County | Non Matching Signature | 14 |
*Source: Illinois State Board of Elections.
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