Prairie State Wire

Illinois GOP Chairman Don Tracy is vowing to continue the party’s election integrity efforts into 2023. 

With a goal to "compete and win in the Chicago suburbs and in the large downstate cities that resemble those suburbs," Tracy said the party will "continue to build up infrastructure of human and financial capital to lay the groundwork for future success."

“In Summer 2021, I formed the Election Integrity Committee,” Tracy said in his weekly memo. “This working group of volunteers reviewed and analyzed voter records, tracked voting legislation, supported candidate election integrity efforts, recruited and placed poll watchers, election judges and election attorneys in priority areas, and established a war room to field and timely respond to reports of election integrity concerns. This Committee’s work is ongoing, as further strengthening election integrity in Illinois at all levels will continue to be a top priority of the State Party.” 

Through teamwork, the GOP leader sees that they "can loosen the Democratic stronghold on downstate university towns like Champaign, DeKalb, Carbondale, Macomb, Normal, Peoria, and Charleston." With Republicans retaining a minority in both houses after the recent election, Tracy advised the party that it must channel its frustration into action, towards advancing its common cause and shared values "by building stronger and more competitive state and local Republican parties." Together, they will continue improving their "brand to appeal more to working families, diverse communities, young people, and independents." He reminded supporters there is "a lot of work to be done in 2023 and beyond.”

“These two committees will be joined by several new working groups of volunteers in 2023 to help build up our infrastructure," Tracy said. "While these new committees will not solve all our issues with GOTV, VBM, early voting, university towns, voter registration, and local capacity building, it is an important step forward in supporting our investments in enhancing our digital footprint and assets, helping local Republican parties recruit new PCs and build VBM programs, increasing Election Integrity and GOTV capacities, and securing the resources needed to achieve these goals.” 

The General Election held on Nov. 8 had its share of mishaps. Republican U.S. Senate candidate Kath Salvi's name was left off hundreds of Schuyler County ballots before the error was discovered. The county clerk is a Democrat. 

State Rep. Brad Halbrook (R-Shelbyville) said in his years in politics he’d never seen such a problem. 

“I have never seen an error of this magnitude on a ballot. This is a serious mistake,” Halbrook told Chambana Sun. “Absolutely, we should be concerned about this. It is not just the Senate race at stake here. Other races could be affected. What if there is a close local election? What if these ballots are determined to be invalid because of the error? There could be all kinds of repercussions from the mistake made on these ballots. There needs to be a viable solution to correct the error.”

DuPage County Clerk Jean Kaczmarek has been criticized for her handling of ballots to ensure integrity. State Rep. Deanne Mazzochi (R-Elmhurst) filed legal action against Kaczmarek for allegedly improperly verifying mail-in ballots. The court issued a temporary restraining order against the clerk on her behalf noting Kaczmarek’s staff was "improperly using Vote by Mail applications to validate a voter's signature on a Vote by Mail ballot.”

Mazzochi announced the court's decision in a press release stating, "using a Vote by Mail application to qualify signatures on the Vote by Mail ballot itself would be an obvious way to commit ballot fraud," Dupage Policy Journal reported.

Kaczmarek was also accused of blocking Carol Davis, chairman of the Illinois Conservative Union, from serving as an election judge. Davis, who was in support of Kaczmarek's election opponent, Evelyn Sanguinetti, said Kaczmarek blocked her from serving as an election judge. "I’ve been an election judge here in Illinois for 18 election cycles," Davis said. "Now, that’s been in DuPage County. Over the last several years I have been outspoken about the procedures not being followed. The law is not being followed. Our county clerk here in DuPage County Jean Kaczmarek blacklisted me from working as a judge this year.”

Kaczmarek also oversaw the flawed 2021 election in which a recount was ordered in the race in which former DuPage County Auditor Bob Grogan was defeated by  75 votes after vote-by-mail increased tallies days after the election.

Kendall County Republican Party Chairman Jim Marter said vote-by-mail is often exploited by Democratic political operatives. “Both the Early VBM ‘Vote by Mail’ and then the late VBM have an overwhelming Democrat ballot surge,” Marter told Kendall County Times. “So which is it with Democrats? They are all excited to vote early, or they all wait to mail a ballot on election day? When the presumed reason they have a mail-in ballot is they are not going to be able to vote on election day. Hmm, just saying. Nothing to see here!”  

Marter said he will sum it up with a quote from his friend, Davis of the Illinois Conservative Union, "we have '40 days of Fraud' in Illinois elections, and I will add, then we have election day, and 14 days of fraud to continuing to harvest VBM after election day is over. Illinois is a mess, and trust in elections is at an all-time low. Most countries do NOT allow or only allow very limited mail-in ballots. There is a reason for that since the integrity of the ballot cannot be verified!"