Illinois State Board of Elections met March 21.
Here are the minutes provided by the board:
PRESENT: Ian K. Linnabary, Chair
Casandra B. Watson, Vice Chair
William J. Cadigan, Member
Laura K. Donahue, Member
Tonya L. Genovese, Member
Catherine S. McCrory, Member
William M. McGuffage, Member
Rick S. Terven, Sr., Member
ALSO PRESENT: Bernadette M. Matthews, Executive Director
Jeremy Kirk, Assistant Executive Director
Marni M. Malowitz, General Counsel
Amy L. Calvin, Board Liaison
The meeting convened at 10:40 a.m. via videoconference with all Members present. Members Cadigan, Donahue, Genovese, McCrory and Terven were present in the Springfield office and Chair Linnabary, Vice Chair Watson and Member McGuffage were present via Zoom.
Chair Linnabary opened the meeting by leading everyone in the pledge of allegiance.
Member McCrory moved to approve the minutes from the February 22 meeting as presented. Member Donahue seconded the motion, which passed by roll call vote of 8-0.
Ms. Malowitz presented an appeal of campaign disclosure fines where she concurred with the hearing officer recommendation to grant the appeal for agenda item 2.a.1) SBE v. Friends of Willie Preston, 35756, 22MQ082. Ross Secler was present on behalf of the respondent committee and concurred with the recommendation. Member Cadigan moved to grant the appeal, which was seconded by Member Terven and passed by roll call vote of 8-0.
Ms. Malowitz presented and reviewed the following appeals of campaign disclosure fines where she concurred with the hearing officer recommendation to deny the appeals for agenda items 2.a.9, 11, 15 & 17.
9) SBE v. Cook County Green Party, 26019, 22JQ062. Richard Giovanoni was present on behalf of the respondent committee. He indicated that the Treasurer suffered a medical condition and said the error was inadvertent. Member McCrory moved to deny the appeal, which was seconded by Member Donahue and passed by roll call vote of 8-0.
11) SBE v. Worth Township Democratic Organization, 34827, 21AS043, 22AD041. Ross Secler was present on behalf of the respondent committee and offered a settlement in the amount of $1,400. Member Terven moved to deny the appeal and accept the settlement offer to be paid within fourteen days. Member McCrory seconded the motion, which passed by roll call vote of 8-0.
15) SBE v. 41st Ward Regular Democratic Organization, 35996, 22AJ060. Joe Cook was present on behalf of the respondent committee and offered a settlement in the amount of $187.50. Vice Chair Watson moved to deny the appeal and accept the settlement offer to be paid within fourteen days. Member McCrory seconded the motion, which passed by roll call vote of 8-0.
17) SBE v. Friends for Zarzour, 37391, 22NF079. Ross Secler was present on behalf of the respondent committee. He said that it was created as an exploratory committee and the candidate decided not to run for office shortly thereafter. The contributions were returned to their donors and the committee closed with a zero funds balance, prior to receiving the assessment notice. Mr. Secler then asked for a waiver of the fine. Ms. Malowitz noted that the Board has the statutory authority to waive the fine because the reports were eventually filed, the violations were not knowing or intentional, and the committee does not have long history of violations. Member McGuffage moved to deny the appeal and waive the fine, which was seconded by Member Terven and passed by roll call vote of 8- 0.
Ms. Malowitz presented and reviewed an appeal of campaign disclosure fines for agenda item 2.a.3) SBE v. Young Democrats of Cook County, 19775, 22JQ036. She did not concur with the hearing officer recommendation to deny the appeal because the committee raised an electronic filing defense during the hearing. Ms. Malowitz indicated the appeal could be granted based on this defense. Member Cadigan moved to grant the appeal, which was seconded by Member Donahue and passed by roll call vote of 8-0.
Ms. Malowitz presented and reviewed an appeal of campaign disclosure fines where she concurred with the hearing officer recommendation to deny the appeal for agenda item 2.a.2) SBE v. Southwest Suburban Homebuilders Assn. PAC, 19236, 22JQ034. She explained that the appeal should be denied, but for different reasons than determined by the hearing officer. The Board was not required to send the committee any quarterly report due date notices between April 2022 and the time the report was filed in July 2022, so the committee has not shown the assessment was in error. Member Cadigan moved to adopt the recommendation of the General Counsel and deny the appeal. Member Terven seconded the motion, which passed by roll call vote of 8-0.
Ms. Malowitz presented the following appeals campaign disclosure fines where she concurred with the hearing officer recommendation to deny the appeals for agenda items 2.a.4-8, 10, 12, 13, 14, 16 & 18:
4) SBE v. Citizens for John Steffen, 20076, 22MQ022, 22JQ037;
5) SBE v. Kapitan for DeKalb, 22055, 22DQ041; (pgs.36-41)
6) SBE v. People Attempting to Rescue IL by Opting to Instate Scott McCoy, 23730, 22JQ049;
7) SBE v. Friends of Giuseppe Zerillo, 24496, 22JQ055;
8) SBE v. Friends for Rafael Yanez, 25892, 22JQ061;
10) SBE v. Friends of Gregg Johnson, 33973, 22AJ043;
12) SBE v. People for Price, 35028, 22NF034;
13) SBE v. Committee to Elect Judge Gerardo Tristan, Jr., 35535, 22JQ112;
14) SBE v. Brittany Pedersen for Kane County Judge, 35673, 22JQ116;
16) SBE v. Areyto Political Action Committee, 36936, 22NF065;
18) SBE v. Friends of Daliah Goree, 37518, 22JQ194.
Member Cadigan moved to deny the above noted appeals, which was seconded by Member McCrory and passed by roll call vote of 8-0.
Ms. Malowitz presented a listing of civil penalty assessments necessitating a final board order. Member Cadigan moved to assess the civil penalties against the committees listed on pages 121- 127 of the board packet. Member Genovese seconded the motion, which passed by roll call vote of 8-0.
Next on the agenda was consideration of random audits of political committees and Ms. Malowitz indicated that a memo from Tom Newman, Director of Campaign Disclosure was included on page 128 of the board packet. She said that Mr. Newman was seeking a selection rate of 2.5%, which was the same percentage used in 2022, and that 2.5% of active committees would be drawn and selected to perform an audit. Discussion was had regarding the statutory selection amount of up to 3% and the number of committees that were selected in 2022, but determined to be exempt because of their low dollar status. In light of the large number of committees who were exempt from audit, Member Cadigan moved to approve a 3% selection process for the random audits. Member Donahue seconded the motion, which passed by roll call vote of 8-0.
A listing of payment of civil penalty assessments was presented for informational purposes.
Ms. Malowitz presented the complaints following closed preliminary hearing for agenda items 2.a.22 & 24 and noted that they could be dismissed in open session because the complainants failed to appear. As to 2.a.22) Balich v. Campabello, 23CD001, Member Cadigan moved to dismiss the complaint for want of prosecution. Member McCrory seconded the motion, which passed by roll call vote of 8-0. Ross Secler was present on behalf of the respondent in 2.a.24 and agreed to dismissal of the complaint. As to 2.a.24) Summerville v. Friends of Anthony Napolitano, 23CD006, Member Cadigan moved to dismiss the complaint for want of prosecution. Member Genovese seconded the motion, which passed by roll call vote of 8-0
Member Cadigan moved to recess to executive session to consider complaints following closed preliminary hearing pursuant to Section 9-21 of the Election Code, 10 ILCS 5/9-21, and Section 2(c)(4) of the Open Meetings Act, 5 ILCS 120/2(c)(4). Member McCrory seconded the motion, which passed by roll call vote of 8-0. The meeting recessed at 11:40 a.m. and reconvened at 12:00 p.m. with seven Members present. Member McGuffage left the meeting at 11:50 a.m. and Member Terven held his proxy.
As to agenda item 2.a.23) Plock v. Citizens for a Better Roscoe, 23CD004, Member Cadigan moved to dismiss the complaint for lack of jurisdiction. Member McCrory seconded the motion, which passed by roll call vote of 8-0.
Next on the agenda was the report of the Executive Director and Ms. Matthews began with an update on the 2023 Consolidated Elections. She reported that the Consolidated Primary Election was held on February 28 and call volume was very low. Staff answered routine inquiries throughout the day related to polling place lookup and voter registration and no major issues were reported.
Ms. Matthews presented a memo regarding late precinct reporting and noted that the report has been provided to the Board since the 2010 election cycle. For the February 28 Election, only two precincts, one in Cook County and one in the City of Chicago, did not report their results by 2:00 a.m. due to human error.
A voting system pre-election testing memo was presented and Ms. Matthews reviewed the report. Lake County was selected for pre-election testing and those results were included on pages 131 132 of the board packet. For the April 4 Consolidated Election, The Division of Voting and Registration Systems will conduct testing of the tabulation equipment in the City of Galesburg and the Counties of Grundy, Henderson, Iroquois and Vermilion. As previously reported, the
jurisdictions are chosen based on several factors, including but not limited to the length of time since previously pre-tested, any system issues that we were made aware of during previous testing campaigns, the number of precincts within each jurisdiction, and also to ensure that all approved voting systems in Illinois are tested regularly. Ms. Matthews discussed methods to improve the testing process, including possible hiring of additional staff and cross-training current staff located in the Chicago office.
A listing of election judge training schools conducted by agency staff was presented for informational purposes.
Ms. Matthews presented the Hart Verity 2.6 Engineering Change Order (ECO) and said it was an informational item. She explained that the system received a two year interim approval on January 19, 2022 after a successful test campaign. This ECO was reviewed by the Election Assistance Commission (EAC) as well as SLI Compliance, an accredited Voting System Test Laboratory (VSTL). A brief description of the changes that were made and how the system and components will be affected were included on page 134 of the board packet.
Ms. Matthews briefed the board on legislative activity and noted that spring session is ongoing in the General Assembly. All of the agency agenda items have sponsors and all language has been introduced except the proposed language related to campaign disclosure criminal penalties. Currently, staff is responding to inquiries related to those bills and focusing on tracking elections related legislation, which will most likely be included in an omnibus bill. Ms. Matthews noted that staff recently participated in a subject matter hearing related to rank choice voting and the House Appropriation budget hearing on March 8. The budget hearing was attended by Ms. Matthews and Eric Bolinger, CFO and was fairly standard in nature, with limited follow up information related to the budget having been requested by committee members. The Senate Appropriation budget hearing is scheduled for April 19 and Ms. Matthews said she will report to the Board after the hearing.
The voter registration activity report, grant funding update, fiscal status reports and two year plan of staff activity for the months of March and April were all presented for informational purposes.
Member Genovese moved to recess to executive session for the purpose of discussing the appointment, employment, compensation, performance, or dismissal of specific employees and pending litigation pursuant to Sections 2(c)(1) and 2(c)(11) of the Open Meetings Act, 5 ILCS 120/2(c)(1), 2(c)(11). Member McCrory seconded the motion, which passed by roll call vote of 8-
0. The meeting recessed at 12:35 p.m. and reconvened at 1:30 p.m. with seven Members present.
Member Terven moved to appoint Tom Newman, Director of Campaign Disclosure for a two year term, which was seconded by Member Cadigan and passed by roll call vote of 7-0. Vice Chair Watson voted present.
Member Cadigan moved to appoint Ryan Melchin to the position of Legislative Liaison for a two year term. Motion failed due to lack of a second.
Member Terven moved to appoint Nathanial Harris to the position of Legislative Liaison for a two year term. Member Genovese seconded the motion, which failed by roll call vote of 4-4. Members Cadigan, Donahue, McCrory and Chair Linnabary voted in the negative.
Member McCrory moved to appoint Zach Whitman to the position of Legislative Liaison for a two year term. Member Donahue seconded the motion, which failed by roll call vote of 3-5. Members Cadigan, Genovese, McGuffage, Terven and Vice Chair Watson voted in the negative.
With there being no further business before the Board, Member Donahue moved to adjourn until Tuesday, April 18, 2023. Member McCrory seconded the motion, which passed unanimously. The meeting ended at 1:37 p.m.
https://www.elections.il.gov/AboutTheBoard/MeetingMinutesAll.aspx
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