Illinois State Board of Elections met July 21.
Here are the minutes provided by the board:
PRESENT: William J. Cadigan, Chair
Casandra B. Watson, Vice Chair
Cristina D. Cray, 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 10:30 a.m. via videoconference with all Members present. Chair Cadigan, Vice Chair Watson and Members McCrory and McGuffage were present in the Chicago office and Members Cray, Donahue, Genovese and Terven were present in the Springfield office.
Chair Cadigan opened the meeting by leading everyone in the pledge of allegiance.
Chair Cadigan said that the swearing in of newly appointed Board Member Cristina D. Cray was the first order of business and introduced the Honorable Christopher G. Perrin, Associate Circuit Judge, 7th Judicial Circuit. Ms. Cray recited the oath as Judge Perrin conducted the ceremony. Member Cray was welcomed to the Board.
The Board recognized outgoing Board Members William Cadigan and William McGuffage and thanked them for their service and commitment.
Member Donahue moved to approve the minutes from the May 16 meeting as presented. Member McCrory seconded the motion, which passed by roll call vote of 8-0.
Ms. Malowitz presented a settlement offer for agenda item 5.a.1) SBE v. Friends of Julia Kline, 38701, 22DQ302 and recommended acceptance of the offer. Member Terven moved to accept the settlement offer, which was seconded by Member McCrory and passed by roll call vote of 8- 0.
Ms. Malowitz presented an appeal of campaign disclosure fines for agenda item 5.a.2) SBE v. Friends of Jawaharial Omarr Williams, 35462, 20MA079. She concurred with the hearing officer recommendation to grant the appeal in part and deny the appeal in part. Vice Chair Watson moved to adopt the recommendation of the hearing officer and General Counsel. Member McCrory seconded the motion, which passed by roll call vote of 8-0.
Ms. Malowitz presented the following appeals of campaign disclosure fines where she concurred with the hearing officer recommendation to deny the appeals for agenda items 5.a.3-6.
6) SBE v. Friends of Azam Nizamuddin for State, 37260, 22JQ074. Mr. Nizamuddin was present on behalf of the committee and offered a settlement of $562.50. Vice Chair Watson moved to deny appeal and accept the settlement offer, which was seconded by Member McCrory and passed by roll call vote of 8-0.
3) SBE v. Downers Grove Elementary Education Assn., 22069, 22DQ185;
4) SBE v. Friends of Kimberly Jones, 32324, 22DQ214; and
5) SBE v. New Trier Economy Party, 32692, 22DQ216. Member McCrory moved to deny the above noted appeals, which was seconded by Member Donahue and passed by roll call vote of 8-0.
The next item on the agenda was the investment history for agenda item 5.a.7) Friends of Walter Burnett, Jr., 10591, and Ms. Malowitz reviewed the matter, which was included on pages 47-48 of the board packet. The recent news articles have alleged that $165,000 in investments may be missing from the Friends of Walter Burnett, Jr. committee. Director of Campaign Disclosure Tom
Newman’s memo outlined the issue and identified potential investments made by the committee in 1999 and 2000 with proceeds that may not have been properly disclosed. After inquiries to the committee from agency staff, Mike Kasper, attorney for the committee, submitted a letter on June 18, 2023 indicating that the committee's records of these investments were destroyed in a flood in 2001 and the committee's efforts to locate the records from successor entities of the banks and the FDIC have been unsuccessful. Ms. Malowitz reported that up to this point, the agency efforts regarding the issue have been on an informal basis and that the matter was presented to the Board for discussion and possible formal action regarding the alleged missing funds. She noted that although the Board has power to order an audit for cause, those audits are limited to a two year time period and an audit at this point is unlikely to yield information regarding the old investments. Board discussion ensued regarding possible actions, included staff initiated complaints, referral to the Attorney General’s office and/or State’s Attorney office. It was the general consensus of the Board to direct staff to continue to investigate the matter further and update the Board as information becomes available.
A listing of payment of civil penalty assessments was presented for informational purposes.
Ms. Malowitz presented complaints following closed preliminary hearing and it was noted that no one was present for agenda items 5.a.9-11 & 14, therefore, the matters could be disposed of in open session.
9) SBE v. Friends of County Board Chairman Jim Moustis, 19546, 23CD009. Member McCrory moved to find that the complaint was filed on justifiable grounds and the matter proceed to a public hearing. Member Donahue seconded the motion, which passed by roll call vote of 8-0.
10) SBE v. Citizens for Joe Clement, 32473, 23CD012; and
11) SBE v. Activate Oak Park, 35993, 23CD019. Vice Chair Watson moved to find that the complaints in both cases were filed on justifiable grounds, however no further action was ordered because the committees filed amended reports correcting their negative funds balances. Member McCrory seconded the motion, which passed by roll call vote of 8-0.
14) Citizens to Elect Billy McKinney v. Johnson, 23CD026. Member Terven moved to dismiss the complaint for want of prosecution. Member Donahue seconded the motion, which passed by roll call vote of 8-0.
Vice Chair Watson 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 11:25 a.m. and reconvened at 12:35 p.m. with the same attendance as noted in the initial roll call.
As to agenda item 5.a.12) Consolino v. Neitzke-Troike, 23CD023, Vice Chair Watson moved to continue the matter to the August Board meeting. Member Donahue seconded the motion, which passed by roll call vote of 8-0.
As to agenda item 5.a.13) Szula v. Citizens for a Better Roscoe, 23CD025, Vice Chair Watson moved to adopt the recommendation of the hearing officer and General Counsel to find that the complaint was filed on justifiable grounds and order the committee to include the attribution of source on all campaign materials. Member Donahue seconded the motion, which passed by roll call vote of 8-0.
Vice Chair Watson moved to adopt the recommendation of the hearing officer and General Counsel to find that the following complaints were not filed on justifiable grounds for agenda items 5.a.15-19:
15) Makula v. Qadeer, 23CD028;
16) Makula v. Keane, 23CD029;
17) Makula v. Committee to Save Niles-Maine District Library, 38864, 23CD030;
18) Yasell v. Botello, 23CD031; and
19) Yasell v. Trunco, 23CD032.
Member Genovese seconded the motion, which passed by roll call vote of 8-0.
Ms. Malowitz presented a proposed amended rule for Part 213 Cyber Navigator Program which was contained on pages 50-52 of the board packet. She reviewed the memo and explained that the Information Technology (IT) Division is developing a back up system in the event of a failure of the Illinois Century Network (ICN), which is provided by the Department of Technology and innovation (DoIT). The proposed language authorizes the use of an IT backup system should the ICN fail for a period exceeding one hour. Discussion was had regarding the use of an independent system separate from the DoIT network and associated costs. Member McCrory moved to grant authority to staff to initiate the rulemaking process through the Joint Committee on Administrative Rules, which was seconded by Member Donahue and passed by roll call vote of 8-0.
Ms. Matthews began her report with the legislative update and FY24 Budget Summary, which was included on pages 53-54 of the board packet. She also presented the 103rd General Assembly Legislative Summary which was contained on pages 55-58 of the board packet. Ms. Matthews noted that no standalone bills nor the election omnibus bill contained items from the Board’s legislative agenda. The Board discussed its legislative subcommittee and Member Donahue indicated she would like to resign her position on the committee. It was agreed that Member Cray would fill the vacant spot on the legislative subcommittee. Ms. Matthews responded to questions from the Board regarding the bills listed on the legislative summary. She reviewed the three task forces and noted that the agency will provide staff and administrative support for the Access to Voting for Persons with Disabilities and Public Financing of Judicial Elections task forces. The agency will provide administrative support for the Ranked-Choice and Voting Systems task force. Brian Pryor reviewed the No Representation Without Population Act and Ms. Matthews highlighted the items from the omnibus election bill that directly impact the agency. The first item is the Centralized Statewide Voter Registration List, which will now require the agency to updated those lists on a monthly basis to be implemented by January 1, 2024. The second item is preregistration of individuals at the age of sixteen if that voter will be eighteen years old on the date immediately following a general or consolidated election for which candidates are nominated at the primary election.
Ms. Matthews presented the IVRS rewrite updated which included a memo from Dustin Schultz on page 59 of the board packet. She noted that the first three phase with Gartner are completed and staff is currently developing the RFP package that will be submitted to the State Purchasing Officer for review.
Next on the agenda was a six month IT progress report and Darrin Barnes, Chief Information Officer updated the Board on activities within the IT Division. He provided a Power Point Presentation which outlined plans for employee evaluation and development and a timeline for scheduled implementations. These include remote access and wireless network upgrades, migration to Office 365, Google document storage warehouse, server reconfigurations, various equipment upgrades and website redevelopment.
Ms. Matthews presented the grant funding update, which was included on pages 61-65 of the board packet and updated the Board on the current remaining funding for the Polling Place Accessibility and IVRS grants. Ms. Matthews also presented and reviewed the additional grant funding opportunities that are currently available to the agency contained on pages 66-68 of the board packet. The Effective Absentee Systems for Elections Grant 3.0 (EASE Grant 3.0) is a federal grant created for the public purpose of supporting and improving the voting experience of voters covered by the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act (UOCAVA). Ms. Matthews indicated that grant allowed the agency to pursue an immediate improvement to the current UOCAVA voter system by fully funding a long-term engagement with an outside vendor, Democracy Live, to replace the internal application. The FFY23 Homeland Security Grant Program (HSGP) is one of three grant programs that constitute the Department of Homeland Security and Federal Emergency Management Agency focused on protecting against and responding to terrorist attacks at all government levels. Ms. Matthews noted that 3% of the HSGP is required to be used towards election security and reviewed the three proposed uses approved by executive staff. Ms. Matthews responded to questions from the Board and discussion ensued.
The voter registration activity report, fiscal status reports and two year plan of staff activity for the months of June and July were presented for informational purposes.
Under other business, Chair Cadigan indicated that discussions with executive staff were had about the development of Board policies regarding Board/staff communications, Board involvement in procurement vendor selection and other operational matters. He expressed interest in hearing how those policies develop going forward with future Boards.
Member Terven moved to approve the minutes from the May 16 executive session meeting, which was seconded by Member Donahue and passed by roll call vote of 8-0.
With there being no further business before the Board, Member Donahue moved to adjourn until Monday, July 3, 2023. Member McCrory seconded the motion, which passed unanimously. The meeting ended at 2:00 p.m.
https://www.elections.il.gov/AboutTheBoard/MeetingMinutesAll.aspx
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