Ted, regarding the article you posted above on Dan Curry I fail to see why the DuPage County Election Commission (or the County Board for that matter) needs to pay outside political "strategists" of any party to write press releases and lobby Springfield and DC politicians.

In the article it states "Commission officials felt that recent changes to state election law created a need for a public relations specialist who could communicate those changes to the media and voters, Saar said".

You'd think it'd be the state's responsibility to inform the media who's job it is to tell voters the state changed the law. I'm sure if our legislators had made beneficial changes to the law for voters they wouldn't be shy either about letting us know. Regardless, as a voter in DuPage I don't recall seeing any information from the DCEC informing me of anything but the most mundane matters in my mail. Certainly not anything that needs to be or looks like it was written by a professional PR person.

Has the Sun received press releases from Mr. Curry? Maybe you folks could tell us how easy he's made your jobs in conveying information to the public with brilliant prose the DCEC is incapable of? Does Mr. Curry's work for the DCEC actually have anything to do with informing the public about election law changes or just spreading misinformation about the DCEC's critics? Does he write up those glowing press releases for Mr. Saar touting the wonders of his electronic voting machines at symposiums all over the country and to visiting Red Chinese dignitaries? And BTW doesn't it strike you as a little strange that communist Chinese political honchos, a group hardly known for their interest in free and fair elections have expressed interest in the way the DCEC runs elections? That's like going to Darfur to learn how to manage ethnic strife.

As for hiring one of Mike Madigan's ex lawyer cronies, a Democrat in Springfield, I'm equally troubled by this. Does it make sense to pay off one of speaker Madigan's friends to get his ear when we pay the Republican assembly reps and senators from DuPage to do that for us in Springfield? Why not just cut out the middleman and elect Democrats to the state house instead? It'd be a lot cheaper for taxpayers in DuPage if we didn't have to pony up welfare for outside political hacks to do the job we're already paying Republican politicians and the election commission to do.

The DuPage County Board put us deep into the red with this kind of fiscal mismanagement over the last few years. They were set to fire 200 DuPage County cops and close traffic courts all over the county with their "doomsday" budget when the Democrats in the state legislature bailed them out with another sales tax increase and let them paper over this year's deficit by applying those state taxes earmarked for transportation projects (which is still a pressing need in DuPage) instead to public safety.

The county government's money woes aren't going away anytime soon. Housing prices are falling, DuPage is actually losing population and county tax revenues, like the rest of the economy, are projected to sink even more over the next few years if not longer. Schillerstrom and company have spent taxpayer money like they thought the good times would never end. They need to tighten their belts and they can start by ending the practice of outsourcing work we already pay state Republican legislators, the Republican DCEC and the Republican county government to do. No more wingnut welfare at our expense for lobbyists and PR flacks of any political party.

In the interests of accuracy, let me correct the information I posted earlier about Doreen Nelson's attendance at an IBIP meeting. Similar to the meeting I noted, it was held at the IBEW Hall, but the featured speaker was Harvey Wasserman on a different date.

Though the details differ, the fact speaks for itself that she attended the IBIP meeting (at which I publicly applauded her as a person working for the DuPage Election Commission [DEC] for seeming to care enough to get the information on the problems with the voting machines). Admittedly, the applause was somewhat "tongue-in-cheek" as the DEC repeatedly ignored public pleas to NOT purchase the voting machines; but can't we be hopeful?

We would all do well to see the entire DuPage Election Commission replaced like I heard they did in Cuyahoga County, OH.

At the very least there should be TWO appointed commissioners that are Democrats, given the fact that the Democrats are now the majority party as indicated by the ballots cast in the Primary election.

Wait a minute here. Democrat/Republican APPOINTMENTS to the DEC - Smells to me of possible PARTISAN politics . . .

Perhaps it's time to get the organization that monitors and plans elections in our great County in line with the public need for clean and fair elections. We MUST have an election authority that observes the rules thoughtfully laid out by legislation, that represents Illinois citizens' concerns for ACCURATE elections.

To be fair, appointment to the DEC should be taken out of that realm and moved to a position of public election, perhaps with advisory liaisons to the various political parties.

Bob Babcock

To Mike K.,

As promised, here's the story about Curry on the election commission payroll:

http://www.suburbanchicagonews.com/napervillesun/news/835368,6_1_NA11_CURRY_S1.article

Election commission draws criticism for PR strategist

IBIP calls Curry 'right-wing operative'

March 11, 2008
By Paige Winfield pwinfield@scn1.com

The DuPage County Election Commission is paying a Republican campaign strategist $3,000 a month to conduct public relations.

The commission signed a 1 1/2 year contract last May with Dan Curry, 50, who has directed communications for former Illinois Attorney General Jim Ryan, former U.S. Sen. Peter Fitzgerald and DuPage County State's Attorney Joe Birkett.

Comments made on Curry's blog at www.reversespin.com and his Republican connections have drawn criticism from the Illinois Ballot Integrity Project. Although IBIP claims to be a nonpartisan election watchdog group, The Sun has reported the group has links to left-wing organizations.

Calling Curry a "right-wing operative," IBIP says his contract with the election commission is "inappropriate," according to a written statement.

But Bob Saar, executive director of the commission, defended the contract, saying the commission is only concerned that Curry does the job for which he was hired. He pointed out that the commission also employs lobbyist Jim Morphew, who has served as legal counsel to Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan, a Democrat.

"We use people who can be effective, as opposed to looking at whether someone is Republican or Democrat," Saar said. "People do things outside of their work for us. We don't have a litmus test of what our lobbyist is lobbying for outside of what they do for us."

Commission officials felt that recent changes to state election law created a need for a public relations specialist who could communicate those changes to the media and voters, Saar said.

"We're a county of a million people," he said. "Many of the larger jurisdictions have full-time PR people. A $3,000 contract with someone of Dan's experience is a very good deal for the county."

Before he became Ryan's press secretary in 1994, Curry reported for a suburban newspaper for nine years. When a two-year-long job in Fitzgerald's office ended in January 2005, he started Curry Public Strategies Inc. Recent clients have included Steven Greenberg, Republican candidate for the 8th Congressional District and DuPage County in its campaign for a sales tax referendum.

Along with criticizing his party affiliations, Melissa Urda and Jean Kaczmarek, the co-chairmen of the DuPage County IBIP branch, also have accused Curry of using his Web site to attack them.

In a post dated May 8, 2006, Curry wrote that IBIP was a "wacky left-wing organization."

Curry noted that he was not working for the DuPage Election Commission at the time the post was written.

"I didn't attack the group at all," Curry said.

It's time for me to weigh in here. Republicans (and the Naperville Sun it appears) are pointing to my membership on the Steering Committee of the recently victorious Operation: Turn DuPage Blue organization (comprised of DuPage Democrats) and position as Treasurer of the DuPage Chapter of the Illinois Ballot Integrity Project (IBIP) as evidence of a political bias in IBIP.

At best, this is specious logic. If one checks the IBIP web site (http://www.ballot-integrity.net/about.htm) they would see that Sharon Pierson is the Treasurer, not me. But let's be clear, I AM the Treasurer of the DUPAGE CHAPTER of IBIP.

So?

This merely shows that I'm an activist on this issue while happening to be an activist in the Democratic Party.
The article this blogfest is based on appears to assert this to be evidence of partisanship. With this kind of logic, one could say that Doreen Nelson (Assistant Director of the DuPage County Election Commission) is a mole for IBIP because she went to the 2006 "Take Back the Vote" rally in Warrenville, featuring Mark Crispin Miller that IBIP sponsored.

That there is a lact of evidence of Republican participation in effort to maintain the integrity of our vote is simply evidence of Republican disregard for the sanctity of our democracy. Yes, there is historical evidence of this. The facts speak for themselves as we remember Richard Nixon's dirty tricks.

Republicans are certainly welcome to help ensure ballot integrity - and I believe I might have seen one or two here or there at meetings. However, no one gets asked about their political affiliation . . .

As for Soros and Streisand supporting IBIP, thanks for the tip! I'll have to track them down and see if we can get some help from them. To date, a small handful of people (primarily Kaczmarek & Urda) have used their own personal funds to purchase copies of Election Commission records (at the exhorbitant rate of $1 per page!) and travel to Springfield, etc. on ballot integrity business. This article's author is probably correct that Soros & Streisand may care about this problem.

Has everyone forgotten that the U.S. Government Accountability Office, in a report issued about two and a half years ago, detailed numerous problems with the voting machines? Is the GAO a partisan organization?

Barack Obama said it right a couple of weeks ago or so when he said "this is the silly season in American politics".

These claims of partisanship are like the Wizard of Oz screaming "Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain!"
Let's all work TOGETHER to guarantee our democracy!
Bob Babcock, Treasurer, DUPAGE CHAPTER IBIP

Moderator Jim said:

"your last paragraph is a bit melodramatic, don't you think?"

No.

Brad Friedman
Editor/Publisher, The BRAD BLOG
http://www.BradBlog.com

Following is an excerpt from a compelling and artfully-crafted documentary on election integrity entitled, "Eternal Vigilance." (I have a copy if you'd like to see it all.)

This short 10-minute excerpt is about an ordinary man with an extraordinary story. I watched his testimony before this U.S. House Committee following the 2004 presidential election. Unfortunately, it wasn't covered by mainstream media.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q9BiVJucsM4

Jean Kaczmarek, co-chair
Illinois Ballot Integrity Project, DuPage Chapter

Moderator Ted said:

"My point is, don't preach to me about how it's the fault of The Sun and mainstream media that people don't care about ballot integrity. We're doing our part."

You brought up the assertion that this issue not one that people care that much about. I countered it, explaining that I believe they do, and where they don't, it's due to the failing of the mainstream media to do their job properly. I stand by that assertion. Strongly.

"It would seem to me that if you really cared about fixing the problem you would work toward resolving the issue legislatively."

Apparently, again, you fail to have done your research.

I have worked with federal legislators on such legislation. In 2006, my call for "Emergency Paper Ballots" was swiftly picked up and introduced in both the House and the Senate. The leadership, at the time, never allowed it to come up for a vote.

In 2007 I worked on the leading Election Reform bill introduced by Rush Holt (HR811). Though I do not support the bill as currently written, I was asked by his office to consult on the text before it's originally introduction. The bill offers some much needed improvements in federal standards for elections. Unfortunately, it missed the boat on a number of key points, and got even worse during the committee process.

Holt has another pending bill, trying again for some Emergency Legislation as based on several legislative ideas I've shared with a number of members in both the House and Senate.

Your assertion wondering "Where is the productive, constructive aspect of your message?" is made simply because, again, you've failed to do your due-diligence before making misleading, ill-informed presumptions.

"Why don't we have a national standard for voting with paper ballots? Why is it left up to state s with their myriad different and often antiquated processes? There are a lot of imperfections with our democracy, and there are means to address ever one of them."

And I have been working on every one of them. It has been made very difficult, however, given the amount of OUR money used by the (yes) "bad guys" to fight against such changes. Those fighting against them are the ones who are currently able to profit off the current system. Big time.

"What you're doing is easy. You make a living saying everyone who is against ballot integrity is a bad guy. You're not going to get much of an argument."

Then I guess you're not familiar with me, the work I do, the difficulty faced in the bargain, and certainly unfamiliar with the "living" you think I am able to make from it.

"Not many are going to take the side of villains, like sex offenders and baby seal-clubbers."

You'd be surprised how many do, and the uphill climb that *every* Election Integrity advocate faces, fighting this fight with almost zero resources, and against folks who are willing to run the inaccurate press releases of their opponents without bothering to check it out, as if it's actually news (See The Sun's not-yet-retracted report that started all of this falderall)

But to know any of that, you'd actually have to bother to go find it out. The call you refuse to make to me would have been one easy way to learn about it, before making more embarrassing, inaccurate , uninformed assertions.

The offer is still open, whether you decide to take it, of course, is up to you.

"What I'm missing in your message is how do we achieve voting integrity, other than by attacking those in power? Where is the productive, constructive aspect of your message?"

I've explained the "productive, constructive aspect" to you above, which most folks who are actually familiar w/ my work will know well.

As to "voting integrity", the voters are doing fine. It'd be nice if you left them alone. Achieving ELECTION integrity, on the other matter, is a far different thing, and one that I wish you guys would join the IBIP in fighting for.

It begins with transparency, above all.

And to that end, I note that you are so far unable to prove that a single vote, ever cast during an election on a DRE in DuPage county, or any other was recorded accurately as intended by the voter.

If you think such a system merits the "trust" of the citizenry, then you are a long way off from understanding what is needed to turn this particular Titanic around.

Hope you will pay close attention. It's only your democracy at stake.

Moderator Jim: I'll take this one for Ted. As for your assertions in paragraphs 2 and 3: we and others in the MSM report on the issues. It's then up to you, the people, to decide. We present the issues, expose conflicts of interest etc. to the light of day and then it's for others (not the media) to take it from there. Also, your last paragraph is a bit melodramatic, don't you think?

To view hand-counted paper ballots (HCPB) all one would have to do is go to New Hampshire, where 20% of the state is counted in that manner by citizens at the polls on election night. The entire process is videoed with bipartisan oversight, using an easy count and stack tally method that is done quickly. Chain of custody rules are in place with the HCPB method to ensure security and oversight. The idea is to get the vote count and tallies correct on election night at the poll. The ballots then MUST be secured, by placing them in boxes, sealed, signed, bound and taped, so that the integrity of the election and ANY recount that is to be done is valid.

Amazingly, the results of the HCPB agreed with the recount done there, while the results that were machine tabulated with Diebold optical scan machines were off by 7%--enough of a difference to have changed the outcome of the election! The machine tabulated results account for about 80% of the vote in New Hampshire. (One company, LHS, programs all of the Diebold machines, and memory card for ALL of NEW England, including New Hampshire.) Additionally, the ballot boxes from the machine-tabulated areas were not properly bound with tape, seals could be taken off and put back on, and the chain of custody was lacking.

So, again, I repeat, the idea is to get the vote count and tally correct on election night at the poll, ensure that the ballots are properly secured and a written chain of custody is in place!

There is legislation in the Illinois House that seeks to reduce the role of big money in state elections and the ensuing "pay to play" game for those seeking office. It is HB1640, the Clean Election Act. Similar bills have been enacted in Arizona, and Maine. So, yes, this can be done Illinois!

http://www.ballot-integrity.net/CEC.htm

Another bill HB1642, the Illinois Ballot Integrity Act seeks to have paper ballots, and a 10% audit of all ballots cast in the precinct on election night. Statistically, such a method would determine machine error and/or fraud being perpetrated.

http://www.ballot-integrity.net/CEC.htm

I encourage everyone who wants clean, fair, open and honest elections to click on the link to the website where you will find more information. I invite you to write a letter to your State Representative and to better assist you, a sample letter is already written for you. You would be surprised to know that you have an impact on state governance. If a State Representative gets as little as five letters, or calls from the public about a particular issue, it makes a big impression.

We have the ability to transform our electoral process and our future--what is standing in the way is the influence of large sums cash, the influence it has on the political decisions that are made, and consequences they have on our country. After all, as Americans shouldn’t we all be striving for "a more perfect Union?"

Melisa Urda Co-Chair
Illinois Ballot Integrity Project, DuPage Chapter

Brad,

I won't reply point-by-point as you did. Frankly this is getting repetitive and confusing. I will take issue with just a couple of your key points:

You said, "Today's Republican party is no more "conservative" than today's Democratic party is "liberal" over all. Conflating the ideologies with the party names ill-serves the public as much as the phony Red/Blue paradigm. I'd not insult the Democratic and/or indepdent and/or 3rd party voters of DuPage by calling it a "Red County", for example.

I would disagree. DuPage County is a red county, it's OK to call it that. 100 percent of the county board members are Republican. Historically it's counterbalanced the predominantly Democratic Cook County.

Most of the rest just seems to be an attack on mainstream media for not championing ballot integrity causes. I'm not interested in calling you and having an off-the-record conversation with you. We're providing this forum here for you, Jean, Melissa, anyone to express their views about ballot integrity in DuPage County or elsewhere. We're a mainstream media Web site, and look at the service we're providing be allowing you to disseminate your message exactly as you would like it.

Just as in print, when all our stories up to this one were all about the Ballot Integrity Project's complaints about the DuPage Election Commission, IBIP loved us. This one time we didn't take the bait and print their press release about Dan Curry, yet. We'll get to it.

My point is, don't preach to me about how it's the fault of The Sun and mainstream media that people don't care about ballot integrity. We're doing our part. It would seem to me that if you really cared about fixing the problem you would work toward resolving the issue legislatively. Why don't we have a national standard for voting with paper ballots? Why is it left up to state s with their myriad different and often antiquated processes? There are a lot of imperfections with our democracy, and there are means to address ever one of them.

What you're doing is easy. You make a living saying everyone who is against ballot integrity is a bad guy. You're not going to get much of an argument. Not many are going to take the side of villains, like sex offenders and baby seal-clubbers. What I'm missing in your message is how do we achieve voting integrity, other than by attacking those in power? Where is the productive, constructive aspect of your message?

Eric,

Thank you for your support.

Please note that we are in contact with Republicans frequently. Many Republicans in DuPage County are *very* concerned about election integrity. They're just not running the show.

DuPage County Chairman Robert Schillerstrom also serves as secretary of the Executive Committee of the DuPage Republican Party. He appoints the members of the DuPage County Election Commission, while the DuPage County Board approves the funding for the Election Commission. Chairman Schillerstrom has received contributions from Fidlar Elections of Rock Island, IL -- the "premiere" distributor of Diebold voting systems. In 2004 he accepted $1,500 and in 2005 he accepted $2,500. Fidlar was hoping that DuPage County would lobby for certification to the Illinois State Board of Elections and purchase $12 million Diebold TSx touch screens in the race for federal Help America Vote Act (HAVA) dollars. DuPage County's influence and decision would impact counties far beyond its border.

Ultimately, the County Board did not approve funding for the Diebold TSx touch screens, which limited the Election Commission to purchase only $4 million with available HAVA funding. That's why you only see one touch-screen machine per polling place on Election Day, instead of a row of them. However, Diebold did receive Election Commission Executive Director Robert T. Saar's stamp of approval which was essential for the certification of the TSx machines at the Illinois State Board of Elections. Without the certification, there could be no sales. Following that certification, 60 counties in Illinois bought Diebold TSx machines. Thanks to Mr. Saar, East St. Louis has an inaccurate and insecure voting system.

IBIP and many private citizens fought the certification and purchase of the Diebold TSx in Illinois in 2005. By the way, last year Diebold changed the name of its Election Division to "Premiere." (Notice how the wore "premiere" comes up often? They must really like it.) They changed their name to distance themselves from the negative publicity and liability with their voting systems. Prior to acquiring the Global Systems' opti-scan voting company, Diebold's reputation was outstanding. We agree with Saar when he recently stated that Diebold no longer wanted to be associated with their product. Indeed.

Did you know that Jeffrey Dean, a felon with 23 convictions in computer fraud using a "high degree of sophistication to avoid detection," was largely responsible for programming the Diebold 1.96 opti-scans used in DuPage County and some 30 states in the 2004 election? Did you know that the Diebold GEMS tabulator was listed on the Homeland Security website in 2004 as a national security risk? Sleep well.

So it is unlikely that the DuPage Republican Party will be inviting us to give a presentation, given that their secretary, Robert Schillerstrom, accepted Fidlar contributions, appointed all members of the Election Commission, and shares heavy responsibility in the flaws of DuPage County's electoral process.

Then again...

If Mr. Schillerstrom or Mr. Saar are reading this blog entry, I offer some suggestions. Go to court and seek a full refund and punitive damages for the lousy Diebold voting machines ASAP while United Technologies (their new owner) has plenty of money. Then, switch to hand-counted paper ballots, precinct level, using several shifts of people. Mr. Saar, we encourage you to use our tax dollars to go on a fact-finding mission to Europe and Canada to acquire the best hand-counting methods out there. DuPage County could lead the country. Mr. Saar, you could become a hero overnight.

Jean Kaczmarek, co-chair
Illinois Ballot Integrity Project, DuPage Chapter

P.S. Your answer to my challenge to prove that a single vote, ever cast during an election on a DRE, will likely tell your readers just about EVERYTHING they need to know about the problems with such systems, whether they are made by Diebold or anybody else.

Nonetheless, I'll be happy to answer your questions or theirs -- even the most skeptical ones -- any time.

Ted -

First, thank you for the olive branch. I accept your apology as unconditionally as you offered it. I'll do my best to speak to the points you made, and hope you'll feel free call me to touch base. As you received my initial letter to the editor, you should have my phone number, and I'd be delighted to chat w/ you at more length about the points raised in your note (as well as in previous notes, and the bigger picture).

Sorry it took me so long to notice your comments here. I'd largely given up on this thread. I'm glad I revisited.

Your comments are in quotes...

"When you, a nationally known analyst, wrote your initial letter to us there should have been no expectation of privacy."

There wasn't. And if you revisit the comment above where I mentioned it, the point was not about "privacy" it was in reply to YOUR point where you'd suggested there was some difference between the comments you make on your newspaper's blog, versus the comments you make on your newspaper's website-proper and on it's pages. I suggest there is no difference, and you, as an editor working for the paper, have a responsibility to get it right when you post something here in the name of the paper. You have not done your due-dilligence in that regard, and it was that which I was responding to if you go back and read it again.

"We evaluated its newsworthiness and determined it was relevant to the issue, so we posted it here. You writing us is news, and we treated it as such."

If your posting my note *here* is news, then so is anything else you post here, and should be given the same due dilligence that you'd give any other news item you post. Your comment above would run counter to your very own assertion of a difference between the newspaper and the community forum as you described it.

"As for the distinction between partisan and liberal, we did not create the current socio-political environment whereby the label liberal has come to be associated with the Democratic Party and conservative has come to be associated with the Republican Party, to the point where the two terms are virtually interchangeable."

They are "virtually interchangeable" as used by the partisans who wish to make them so. An objective newspaper should know better than to play into that politically expedient use of those words (though you're certainly not the only outlet to make the same egregious error).

Today's Republican party is no more "conservative" than today's Democratic party is "liberal" over all. Conflating the ideologies with the party names ill-serves the public as much as the phony Red/Blue paradigm. I'd not insult the Democratic and/or indepdent and/or 3rd party voters of DuPage by calling it a "Red County", for example.

The fact that more Dems turned out in your recent primaries than Repubs would seem to back up the wisdom behind that point and it is that sort of thinking which should underscore any legitimate news organization, IMO.

"The tone of our responses merely reflected the tone of your initial attack on us."

Understood. Though I believe you drew "first blood" with your outrageous article which should be retracted, for myriad reasons, as I said from the get go.

"From the outset, you seemed to ignore the real issue here...We reported the GOP's claims, and went to great lengths to include IBIP's responses to those claims."

If you are seriously going to tell me that you believe that article as posted on the web -- and the even more outrageous version posted in the print version -- was "fair" by any means, in it's inappropriate (and inaccurate) slurs by inference, attacks on volunteer citizen activists and burying of the real news (laws broken by the Election Commission, as known *thanks* to the people you slimed), then we'll certainly agree to disagree, strongly, on that point.

"This single report needs to be viewed in context of all of our reporting about IBIP."

I admit to not having followed all of your coverage of this issue. I can't, however, imagine *any* article that would justify the slime and INACCURATE attacks as seen in the most recent article in question. If your previous article were that inaccurate and inappropriate, but to the "other" extreme, that would also offer no excuse for this particular article. Not from a supposedly legitimate news organization.

"You appear to be singularly focused on this issue, is that fair?"

Of "voting rights"? That is just one element of the fight for Election Integrity. But yes, I focus largely on issues such as Election Integrity, Media Integrity, and other issues whose failures are of great threat to our democracy, Constitution and American values.

"The reality is, most Americans don't think about voting rights, would you agree? It's not even among their Top 10 concerns."

I'll both disagree and agree. Most of the polls you site (as I've seen many of them) do not offer the issue of "Election Integrity" as one of the items to chose from.

If they did -- and, in fact, when they do -- the issue comes right up at the top.

Nonetheless, if the mainstream American corporate media did their job, it *would* be at the top of nearly every such list, IMO. That you guys dropped the ball for so many years, covered the problems largely as "conspiracy theory" (until only recently when so many studies have confirmed what so many of us have been trying to tell you for so long that you have to do otherwise, though sleaze balls hoping to either game or otherwise profit off the system still attempt to use such words), and even now continue to minimize out and out Election System and Administrative FAILURES as little more than "glitches", "hiccups", "snags" or "snafus", the American public has been so ill-served by those entrusted with the First Amendment obligation to help protect it, that it's little wonder that many of them still don't understand the grave threat these problems pose to our democracy.

"Most people around here who bother to vote encounter no problems with voting, and have a reasonable expectation that things are on the up-and-up."

Do they? If so, then that would be your fault as well.

If you can prove to me that ONE SINGLE VOTE has ever been recorded accurately, as the voter intended, during a DuPage County Election on one of their DREs, I'll be happy to send Dan Curry a bouquet of flowers with an apology note.

Given your unqualified, if unsupported, assertion that "no problems" exist for the most part, and that "things are on the up-and-up", I suspect it would be very easy for you, or the Election Commission to do prove what I ask above.

One vote, during an election on a DRE, recorded as the voter intended. Ever. Please prove it to me and/or your readers. Thanks in advance.

"For years now, IBIP has depicted the election commission in Republican-controlled DuPage County as a criminal enterprise, yet a thorough investigation by the Democratic state attorney general here found that while the election commission made mistakes, committed errors and neglected to follow proper procedures, no criminal wrongdoing has occurred."

Did they break the law? You seemed to assert as much twice in your very own article (buried at the end, after the inaccurate slime).

As you know, breaking a law is a different question than whether an AG choses to bring criminal charges or not.

It seems to me you should report when laws are broken, you should report when AG's bring charges and when they don't, and leave the swiftboating to the Dan Curry's and the partisan Election Commissions.

(By your standard, of course, George W. Bush broke no laws in his wiretapping of Americans, or in former WH officials refusal to answer to Congressional subpoenas. I disagree, of course. And that AG Mukasey refuses to investigate and/or bring charges does NOT mean that laws were not broken, as I'm sure you understand.)

"the election commission disputes the attorney general's opinion regarding the disposal of ballots, saying a code that requires 60-day prior notification creates an impossible situation. Who do we believe?"

You needn't believe anybody. You can report what happened. eg. The Election Commission did not follow the election code. EI experts have called them out on it. The AG investigated but chose not to bring charges. End of story.

If Barbara Streisand or George Soros have anything to do with that story, perhaps I'm not "expert" enough to see it.

"We'll continue to report about IBIP's complaints without prejudice"

"Continue"? I'll let that go, what with the Olive Branch still dangling :-)

"and with the shortcomings of the DuPage County Election Commission"

"Without prejudice"? Hope so.

"starting with GOP hack Dan Curry being on the payroll for $3,000 a month as a consultant at taxpayer expense."

Thank you. That would be a *true* public service to your readers.

"Brad, I'm sorry for calling you partisan. I won't even qualify my apology. I explained why I used the term."

I accept, again, your apology.

"What do you think motivated the Illinois Republican Party to issue the statement about IBIP?"

Since you spoke above of the It's only my opinion, but it seems fairly obvious about "the current socio-political environment," I'm sure your familiar with the de rigeur response to "bad guys" these days when they get caught and/or the heat gets to hot. They attack/swiftboat the messenger.

In fact, the attack on IBIP from the IL GOP came just after a an almost identical attack on Dan Curry's blog, which I happened to respond to, btw, and which -- instead of allowing to be posted in his comment system -- he merely turned off all comments on his blog.

If you care to call me to discuss any of these points, I'll be happy to share with you privately the email exchanges between he and I, which I had told him I'd consider running on the blog if he didn't have the decency to allow them in his comments section.

Frankly, I've had larger fish to fry than to take on America-hating losers like Curry, so I haven't gotten to posting them. But I'd be happy to share them with you if you'd like. Give me a call.

"If you accept my apology and choose to continue in our discussion, I'd invite you to share your expertise about Diebold voting equipment with our readers."

I'd be happy to answer any questions that you, or they, may have, as my time allows.

Best,
Brad

Note from Ted:

Thanks for reply, Brad. Gotta run to dinner date, but will respond later.

I think the greater question is not whether 2 of the people involved in this group are democrats or anything else for that matter...the greater question should be "Why are conservative groups not concerned about ballot irregularities and possible ballot corruption by election officials or issues with balloting machines/methods?"

If you take notice, they don't disclude republican groups...they have not been invited. If all they are doing is going to democratic organizations becaue no republican organization has invited them, maybe we should be asking republicans why they are not alarmed by this. Any possible disruption of the election process by illegal actions should be a concern to any citizen, regardless of what thier party affiliation is or the party affiliation of the people presenting the issues and taking action on the issues.

This just tells me that republicans have no problem assisting those in the Republican party who wish to turn this nation into a fascist police state. Where are the republican voices in the outcry? Where are the organizations whose leaders are from conservative groups. The silence is deafening...

Eric
a very concerned Veteran

If something like this doesn't make one wonder who is corrupting the voting system, then that person is deaf, dumb and blind:

......DuPage today has discovered that the TSX machines in at least 3 locations display the word REPUBLICAN when the cards are inserted. The ballot is correct but the subliminal effect is disturbing. Remedial efforts by the DuPage Election Commission are forthcoming but the machines were not immediately shut down when this was discovered. In one poll, the offending area of the display was covered with masking tape and at the other they were told it would " say Republican" but "just to ignore it".......

Thanks ever so much, Ms. Kaczmarek and Ms. Urda, for what appears to have been tireless research and self-sacrifice over the last few years. You make me proud to be American. May the media in DuPage Country take up the torch and become as scrutinizing of ballot integrity, or the lack thereof, as the two of you have obviously been.

Again, a crucial point is being missed here, due to the rancor of accusatory partisanship, when in fact, the letter of the law has allegedly (and sadly) has been breached again, in DuPage County.
Again what or who suffers from this infraction? Who suffers--all of us--the voters, the candidates. What suffers--our democracy, and our trust in our election officials,our belief that the system is fair. As far as I know, DuPage is not exempt from following election law.

Here is the law, that should be followed:

The precinct judges of election shall select a bi-﷓partisan team of 2 judges, who shall immediately return the ballots in a sealed container, along with all other election materials as instructed by the election authority; provided, however, that such container must first be sealed by the election judges with filament tape or other approved sealing devices provided for the purpose which shall be wrapped around the container lengthwise and crosswise, at least twice each way, in a manner that the ballots cannot be removed from the container without breaking the seal and filament tape and disturbing any signatures affixed by the election judges to the container, or which other approved sealing devices are affixed in a manner approved by the election authority.

Photos and video show that security has been breached during the retabulation of the vote (as well as on election night), since the ballot boxes were not taped, the official seal could be taken off and put back on without a trace on the box, the seals were lacking election judges' signatures, and one ballot box was already slit open. The Commission said they didn't have to abide by this law. So, please tell me how is that possible, and why should we accept this? When officials hold themselves above the law how are we to trust that other laws have not been similarly dismissed?

And if this was a partisan issue, then tell me why is the Ohio Republican party upset that election law was not followed, that pollwatchers were denied access to observe, that the ballots were not bound with tape, nor sealed and left insecure during Tuesday's primary? Here is the link:

http://ohiogop.blogs.com/state_of_the_union/2008/03/brunner-botches.html
Brunner botches Election Day ballot security

Here is the article
From The Plain Dealer:

In a statement, the Ohio Republican Party called on the Cuyahoga County prosecutor to investigate an apparent violation of state election law in the collection and transportation of ballots during polling hours.

According to Ohio Revised Code Section 3505.25(E), ballots are required to be transported by "members of different political parties," the statement said. But county elections officials now acknowledge those guidelines were not followed, it stated.

The chairman of the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections acknowledged to reporters that it appears ballots were not transported today in accordance with state law, the GOP said.

"This is a serious breach of ballot security," said Ohio Republican Party Deputy Chairman Kevin DeWine." Jennifer Brunner took full responsibility for implementing these policies in Cuyahoga County, and she failed to follow through on the basic procedures for protecting the vote. An investigation of this neglect is critical to restoring voter confidence."

Attached to the GOP's e-mailed new release were five photographs that the GOP statement said " demonstrate the unsecure ballot collection process, including loosely taped cardboard boxes, the chaotic ballot counting process and ballot collection forms clearly indicating Republicans were not involved in the transportation of ballots.

The statement said that a Republican observer at the central count location reports 10% of the boxes of ballots arriving are showing stickers not affixed over the slots (meaning ballots could conceivably be inserted). Officials have cut down the access to the observers and they are not allowed in and around the process.

Just another example that the sanctity and security of the vote is an AMERICAN right--not a partisan issue!

Melisa Urda
Co-Chair of the Illinois Ballot Integrity Project DuPage Chapter

T.B.,

It's difficult for me to respect the criticism of someone not willing to sign his/her name. I have a big problem with non-transparency. For all I know, you could be Dan Curry.

Does it bother you that the DuPage County Election Commission claims to be bi-partisan when it isn't?

Commissioners serving on the board have been appointed or re-appointed by DuPage County Board Chairman Bob Schillerstrom, who also serves as secretary to the DuPage Republican Party. Apparently he does not seek the approval of political parties prior to making these appointments. Please explain how Chairman Schillerstrom can determine, according to 10ICS 5/6-22, "persons of well known political convictions and of approved integrity and capacity" for the Democratic Party.

Further, there are three people serving on the Election Commission, two Republicans and one Democrat. To be bi-partisan, there should be an equal number of people representing each party. When I see the large number of voters not labeled as either Democratic or Republican, there is strong argument that even a 2-2 board would not represent the citizenry fairly.

Members serving on the Election Commission each receive $25,000 in salary annually, in addition to generous health benefits and pension.

Are you holding volunteers of IBIP to a higher standard than public officials well compensated with tax dollars who are empowered with making policy?

Jean Kaczmarek, co-chair
Illinois Ballot Integrity Project, DuPage Chapter

"The election commission has no right to be defensive, to insist we trust them, or to confound possible investigations by destroying machine printouts or any other materials. In fact, it is their job to prove to us that the system is secure beyond question and, if there is even a possibility of fraud, that constitutes a serious failure on their part.

"This is not a partisan issue; it is an American issue. The political preference of anyone trying to ensure the integrity of the ballot is irrelevant, and falsely accusing them of unsavory associations is dishonorable. Ensuring free and fair elections is as patriotic as opening the door to fraud is treasonous."

This is from Bill Mego's column in today's Sun. I think he makes a great point. What difference does it make if IBIP is partisan or not? If its allegations against the Election Commission are true, then the members of the commission should apologize, and focus all of their energies on fixing the problems, rather than sicking their friends in the Republican party on their "enemies".

Why is it that electronic voting seems to be beyond our grasp, yet we can all go to an ATM or get on-line and accurately do our banking any day of the week? Why can’t we just vote through any ATM machine or on-line?

Because an ATM prints me a receipt when I deposit money. I have access to my financial institution's records for my account and I can go verify that the money was in fact deposited into my account, and that the balance they quote me is actually the correct net result of this and all the other transactions that I've had.

With electronic voting, there isn't any verifiability. The machines spit out a total and we have to take Diebold's (or whoever else's) word that the total they report accurately represents the sum of the votes that were cast. It's faith-based voting.

The Sun's article and blog entry make it seem like the IBIP's "partisan ties" are something that was just uncovered by the GOP. This seems strange since Dan Curry blogged about this very topic back in May of 2006 using some of the very same talking points:
http://www.reversespin.com/?p=108

I have to take issue with "The Sun" and other area papers here, the IBIP has done tons of legwork and uncovered a lot of material about the cozy relationships between the DCEC & the vendor that provides the voting machines, the vendor that does document destruction, as well as political operatives Dan Curry and Frank Salvato. Maybe the local media should investigate that while the county budget was going into the red, the DCEC hired Salvato to do "voter outreach" for two yrs. at $30K/yr - and the number of registered voters in Dupage FELL by 84,000 while skyrocketing everywhere else in Illinois, and Dan Curry gets $3K/month to promote the County Sales Tax referendum that was soundly defeated (by 77% to 23%) - was that money wisely spent? If not, why was our media not reporting on this waste of taxpayer money while the county was threatening to fire 200 mostly law enforcement employees? How about reporting on the County Board voting themselves raise after raise, as well as lifetime pensions and complete medical coverage, for positions that meet twice a month? The whole issue about the DCEC's non-compliance with the Local Records Act would have never come to light except for the IBIP's digging up the fact. The IBIP has never received a satisfactory response from the DCEC about the almost 200 containers of documents sent out for destruction after their FOIA request. It seems that the IBIP is doing the job that, well - our local media SHOULD be doing. Instead, the local media appears to be stenographers for the local GOP who insist on defaming the messenger without addressing the contents of the message. Does anyone in the local media have a degree in journalism from a reputable college or university? What are reporter Paige Winfield's bonafides anyway - does she have "partisan connections"? Does "The Sun" have a political agenda? Why hasn't anyone from the local media done their own legwork to see if there is any substance to the concerns brought up by the IBIP? I won't hold my breath.

Walt Bruun
Glen Ellyn

I don’t think anyone disputes the stated goals of IBIP, as long as they want EVERY vote counted. However, you can’t claim to be non-partisan and then be affiliated with a left-wing group without incurring serious credibility problems. IBIP needs to avoid even the appearance of a credibility issue in order to be taken seriously. It doesn’t seem that Jean Kaczmarek understands this, or she just doesn’t care.

Ted, don’t apologize to Brad Friedman. He’s a tool.

Why is it that electronic voting seems to be beyond our grasp, yet we can all go to an ATM or get on-line and accurately do our banking any day of the week? Why can’t we just vote through any ATM machine or on-line?

T.B.

Let's get this record straight, shall we? When I contacted the past chair of the Republican party, I discussed how election machines could be manipulated; that they permitted an avenue for those in power to remain in power, despite the will of the people. I also stated that Chicago and Cook were about to purchase election machines--that fraud could be programmed into the system. At first, he was responsive, even cordial to me, I asked if I could meet with him and discuss these issues. Despite several calls to him and his staff, he didn't respond. In fact, though he was my state senator, he refused to meet me, saying that I did not live in his district, when clearly I did. That is regrettable--it was a missed opportunity for open dialog to address the flagrant insecurities of our vote.

If we are to make transparent our electoral process, then we need EVERYONE to come to the table of democracy, to participate in the process. Let's remember we are Americans first, before we belong to any party affiliation. We should hold the sanctity of the vote and what it represents very dear to us. When it is jeopardized, by the inherently faulty security of the election machines, or by officials who selectively interpret state law, then the confidence of the vote has been compromised. The election becomes less about who wins and who loses, because in the long run we all lose--our democracy loses. Our right to vote transcends ideology, transcends petty arguments regarding politics, and the rancor of rabid partisanship.

Our obligation is to tell people about these deficiencies, rather than do nothing.

Melisa Urda
Co-Chair Illinois Ballot Integrity Project

What this looks like to me is a cut-and-paste from a GOP website, masquerading as journalism. Shame on the Sun for publishing such a shoddy, partisan, plaigarized hack job.

Gee, we keep finding out about more and more organizations and people standing behind and applauding the goals of IBIP.

Maybe you should now retitle this Blog as

"GOP unmasks ballot group as front for citizens"

It would at least be accurate.

Bottom line, the lack of interaction between IBIP/DuPage BIP and the Republican party isn't an indication of pro-Democratic bias in those organizations. It's an indication that the DuPage Republican Party is opposed to the goals of those organizations, which are free and fair elections. The DuPage GOP is not only anti-Democrat, they are anti-democracy. This is reprehensible, but understandable: If they insisted on counting all the votes in DuPage, Schillerstrom and his cronies would soon be out of a job.

As for disclosure, I'm a Democratic committeeman and an O:TDB steering committee member.

While I know some on both sides wouldn't mind if the other political party were obliterated into, well, oblivion, having a multiple (or at least two-party) system is an essential part of a democracy. *Choice* is essential. Perhaps the Naperville Sun favors a one party system. That, however, isn't a democracy. I think we all know what that's called.

This reminds me that someone told me when her family moved to Glen Ellyn back in the 80's, she called the Civic Center to ask for the phone number of the local Democratic organization.

"Honey, we don't have any Democrats in Glen Ellyn", the receptionist cheerily replied.

Response from host:

Thank goodness democracy includes the right to free speech. Otherwise we'd all be in trouble.

Just dropping in after speaking before the DAWN tonight. They took a photo of Melisa and me holding the tabloid hyperpolized with photos of George Soros and Barbra Streisand. Rumor has it that our photo will be placed on DAWN's website next to DuPage County Election Commission Executive Director Robert T. Saar's photo. Several months ago, he also appeared before the nefarious "fringe element" anti-war group representing the views of nearly 70 percent of Americans. Truly the stuff of scandal.

In 2004, DAWN's badge of honor was registering 6,000 voters. We were told how moving it is to register young adults for the first time at the local college campus. Some of these students weep as they fill out their registration forms. So you might imagine DAWN's reaction when I told them that between the 2004 primary and general elections, 84,000 people had been dropped from the voter registration database in DuPage County. I said, "For every voter you brought in the front door, 14 were kicked out the back door." (New registrations brought the net loss up to only 66,000, as reported in the DuPage County Resource Guide -- that hideously boring booklet no one really reads, let alone studies, except for voting watchdogs like us. Dan Curry was hired to make sure such discoveries are kept off the front page.)

True...people die...people move. Databases must be updated. We're reasonable people. But 84,000? That figure represents every man, woman and child in Wheaton and Glen Ellyn combined. Meanwhile, voter registration was breaking records around the country that year, including Illinois and surrounding counties. Was there an unreported plague in DuPage County the summer of 2004? Or perhaps an unreported mass alien abduction?

Political operative Frank Salvato was hired by the Election Commission in 2004 for "voter outreach." We'd sure like to know what ol' Frank was up to that summer...

But then, why should 2004 be any different that 2000? While the world was focused on hanging chads and butterfly ballots in Florida, few noticed the story in DuPage County following the election. According to the Naperville Sun's parent company paper, THOUSANDS of people were turned away from polling places in DuPage County because they weren't in the voter registration database. Saar blamed the Motor Voter program. DuPage State's Attorney Joe Birkett claimed that he's launch a criminal investigation to rule out criminal intent. Then...crickets chirped. There's much more to the story -- well documented and unreported -- and the Naperville Sun has it all in their possession.

In January 2007, the Election Commission sent out a business reply mailing of $105,000 to voters to confirm their residences. Funny, Saar cannot tell us via FOIA how many voters were purged as a result of this mailing, nor can he tell us how many people responded to this mailing, nor can he provide the number of registered voters before the mailing, nor can he provide the number of registered voters six months after the mailing.

2000, 2004, 2008... Call me crazy, but I'm starting to notice a pattern here...

C'mon, Dan. We know you're lurking. We know you love to blog.

When you wrestle with pigs, you've gotta jump in the mud hole.

Jean Kaczmarek, co-chair
Illinois Ballot Integrity Project, DuPage Chapter

Hey, "Brad-elby the Scrivener"....you sure do like to hear yourself talk. Yours isn't a point of view, it's a mini-series (with last year's repeats thrown in to boot). Any solutions besides throwing lawyers at the subject?

Moderator Ted continued his record of being flat wrong by writing:

"Gosh, Brad, there seems to be a bit of a disconnect between how others see you and how you see yourself. Here, you're described as liberal"

Before you then go on to quote from a) a blog comment somewhere about me and b) an NPR description of me. Both of them describing me as "Liberal".

Setting aside whether I'm Liberal or not (and I'm not sure when standing up for the Constitution or the Rule of Law became known as a "Liberal" value), you described me as "Partisan" not as "Liberal".

I suppose, by your tortured attempts to avoid apologizing for being wrong, that Liberal Republicans like Sen. Richard Hagel would be partisan Democrats then?

Or that Progressive Republican Teddy Roosevelt would also be a partisan Dem?

Get a clue, Moderator Ted: You were wrong, period.

Your additional attempts to try and insult me (I assure you, my skin is anything but thin) instead of simply issuing a correction, are just further embarrassment for this so-called news outlet.

You haven't a clue who my "party of choice" is, or even who I've ever voted for. While it remains none of your business, I assure you I've never voted for Bill Clinton or John Kerry, which, by your ridiculous math would make me a Republican? Or a Conservative?

When you manage to distinguish the difference between factual reporting and assertions of out and out made up garbage, I'll be more than happy to "distinguish the difference between factual reporting and commentary such as that found here on this online community forum."

You had access to my initial letter, which you posted here, because it was sent privately to the EDITORS of this newspaper. Thus, I'll presume you are either one of them, and/or otherwise have the responsibility when writing here -- as I do at my own blog -- to make damn sure you know what you're talking about before you embarrass the company by putting it into writing on this space.

Response from Ted:

Brad,

When you, a nationally known analyst, wrote your initial letter to us there should have been no expectation of privacy. You did not indicate it was off the record or not for publication, which we would have honored. We evaluated its newsworthiness and determined it was relevant to the issue, so we posted it here. You writing us is news, and we treated it as such.

As for the distinction between partisan and liberal, we did not create the current socio-political environment whereby the label liberal has come to be associated with the Democratic Party and conservative has come to be associated with the Republican Party, to the point where the two terms are virtually interchangeable.

The tone of our responses merely reflected the tone of your initial attack on us.

From the outset, you seemed to ignore the real issue here. It started with the Republican Party of Illinois issuing a public statement claiming ties between the Illinois Ballot Integrity Project and the Democratic Party. We reported the GOP's claims, and went to great lengths to include IBIP's responses to those claims.

Our single report comes after a series of articles we've done about IBIP's complaints about the DuPage County Election Commission, some of which I posted on this thread in response to another comment. This single report needs to be viewed in context of all of our reporting about IBIP.

We seem to have gotten off on the wrong foot, so I'll extend an olive branch and apologize if I have offended you. We seem to share the common goal of wanting to increase awareness about voting rights.

You appear to be singularly focused on this issue, is that fair? You present yourself as an expert in the field, it would appear. Voting rights is an important issue, and from your body of work I'll surmise that you think Americans should treat it as one of the most important domestic issues threatening our liberty and pursuit of happiness today.

The reality is, most Americans don't think about voting rights, would you agree? It's not even among their Top 10 concerns. Numerous polls show the issues people care most about in this election -- not necessarily in this order -- are the economy, the war in Iraq, health care and illegal immigration. I'll add to that taxes, education, abortion, transportation, aging infrastructure, Social Security, the mortgage crisis, terrorism and a host of other concerns. Voting rights is not even on most peoples' radar.

Most people around here who bother to vote encounter no problems with voting, and have a reasonable expectation that things are on the up-and-up. For years now, IBIP has depicted the election commission in Republican-controlled DuPage County as a criminal enterprise, yet a thorough investigation by the Democratic state attorney general here found that while the election commission made mistakes, committed errors and neglected to follow proper procedures, no criminal wrongdoing has occurred. Meanwhile, the election commission disputes the attorney general's opinion regarding the disposal of ballots, saying a code that requires 60-day prior notification creates an impossible situation. Who do we believe?

The upside of our report is that in DuPage County this week, we've done more to raise awareness about the voting rights issue than anyone else has managed to do for some time.

We'll continue to report about IBIP's complaints without prejudice, and with the shortcomings of the DuPage County Election Commission, starting with GOP hack Dan Curry being on the payroll for $3,000 a month as a consultant at taxpayer expense.

Brad, I'm sorry for calling you partisan. I won't even qualify my apology. I explained why I used the term.

Now, please, if you really care about the issue, won't you please use your expertise on the topic of voting rights and address the real issue here, starting with the GOP's initial release. What do you think motivated the Illinois Republican Party to issue the statement about IBIP?

If you accept my apology and choose to continue in our discussion, I'd invite you to share your expertise about Diebold voting equipment with our readers.

BTW, as I recall, the title for this blog article was originally:

"Ballot group unmasked as front for Dems"

...or some such, but has now been amended to:

"GOP says it unmasks ballot group as front for Dems"

...yet no correction note has been posted to explain the change. If I'm wrong, I apologize. If the headline has been changed without notice, I hope the paper will apologize, as well as issue a note concerning the reasons for the change.

Response from host:

Very perceptive, Brad. A little attribution was added for clarification, that's all. It used to read, "GOP unmasks ballot group as front for Dems."

Rich Wernecke asked:

"What are the ties between the DuPage County Election Commission and the DuPage GOP?"

One of them is Dan Curry. He is both a GOP operative and on the DuPage County Election Commission payroll. It's public record stuff, and that the Naperville Sun took "tips" from Curry, yet didn't bother to investigate Curry's own dirty hands is to their eternal shame.

He was also in the tabulation area on Election Night, while non-partisan citizens, such as those from IBIP, were not allowed in to watch the counting.

Moderator Jim says they'll "be looking at all sides of this story".

I very much look forward to that report.

And a retraction and apology for their original one, since the comments on this blog have revealed that Dems, Libertarians and Greens have ALL worked with and/or linked to IBIP. And yet, the paper reported they are "partisans", in part, because Democratic websites linked to them, and they spoke to Dem and Green groups who invited them.

It's the worst kind of swiftboating/reporting I've seen from a theoretically-legitimate news outlet.

I am concerned why the Sun wrote such an article and the sarcastic tone of its responses to the blog entires.

The DuPage County Election Commission destroys documents before it is legal to do so. It also charges $1 per page to respond with Freedom of Information Act requests. This is more than any other county in Illinois. Why is it deliberately making it expensive to request information? We, the taxpayers, have already paid dearly for their copy machines, paper and Commission salaries.

The Commission is responsible to the public of DuPage County. That should be a greater concern of the Sun than the GOP accusations of the Illinois Ballot Integrity Project.

What are the ties between the DuPage County Election Commission and the DuPage GOP?

What are the ties between the DuPage County Election Commission and Diebold?

Rich Wernecke
West Chicago, IL

Moderator Jim; Thanks for the feedback - we'll be looking at all sides of this story. Stay tuned.

IBIP is being accusing of favoring left wing organizations, and as an example of their "partisanship" they were said to have given presentations to both the DuPage Democrats and the DuPage Green Party, and not the DuPage Republicans.

For the record, IBIP presented at the DuPage Greens meeting because we invited them. One of our key issues is the integrity of elections and, because they are a group that is working on this issue, we were interested in hearing what they had to say.

If the Republican Party isn't inviting ballot watchdog organizations to speak at their meetings, shame on them. This whole flap does kind of beg the question, why does the Republican Party feel so threatened?

Patrick Kelly
DuPage County Green Party

Frankly I'm shocked at the partisan slant of the Naperville Sun's article. How is their partisanship any different from that they claim is exhibited by the IBIP? I'm sorry to say I don't feel this reporting is trustworthy. Even if the IBIP chairpeople are Democrats, who cares? If their purpose is to assure ballot integrity, who can argue with that?

Sometimes I cannot recognize my own country!

For anyone interested in election integrity, I urge you to attend tonight's DAWN meeting at the Glen Ellyn Public Library from 7:30 to 9. My co-chair, Melisa Urda, and I are the guest speakers. DAWN is non-partisan. Everyone is welcome!

DAWN stands for DuPage Against War Now. In the Sunday article focused on IBIP, the Naperville Sun included the subtitle: Anti-War Stance. I happily volunteered that we would be addressing the group, by the way. In the SAME SENTENCE in the interview, I said that the invitation followed a presentation by (DuPage County Election Commission Executive Director) Saar several months earlier. *gasp* Unfortunately, that and many other key points landed on the editing room floor. Apparently they just didn't fit the theme of the article.

As far as global warming goes, did Lance Trover get the memo that John McCain, Republican candidate for president, speaks out on the urgency of taking action to reduce global warming?

Saar addressing an anti-war group...McCain fighting global warming... That jolt you felt was the Earth falling off its axis.

Anyway, the Naperville Sun article has been very good for IBIP. Our phones have been ringing off the hook. Thank you, Dan Curry and Lance Trover!

Jean Kaczmarek, co-chair
Illinois Ballot Integrity Project, DuPage Chapter

I will lay out my "partisan ties" right up front: I am a recently elected Democratic Precint Committeeman - Milton 56. I am also a Navy vet (8 yrs) who fought in a war, and I am a Gold Star family member. My brothers, my father, both grandfathers, and all of my uncles were all veterans - several were highly decorated. I view the right to vote - and to have that vote counted - as a sacred right of American citizens that has been defended with blood and treasure since our Nation began. I think that toying with that sacred right is treason, whether it is Republicans or Democrats or anyone else who toys with that right is beside the point. The Illinois Ballot Integrity Project (IBIP) has been doing a necessary service to support our democracy, since it seems no official state or local agency has seen fit to do so. If you go to the IBIP website, you will see that they have reports of voting issues from the recent primary - most of those reports are from Chicago, Evanston, Skokie and other primarily Democratic strongholds, not just Dupage. IBIP has taken the Cook County election commission and Mr. Orr to task for their use of uncertified voting machinery that led to a fiasco in the 2006 elections. I do not think this is a partisan issue, and as the IBIP has often stated they would like to have, and would welcome, any interested Republicans to join them. The fact that the sealing tape to the ballot boxes can be removed and resealed without anyone noticing is a real concern: the memory cards from the machines are stored there - the memory cards hold the executable code that tells the tabulator how to count the votes, it has been demonstrated, many times by reputable authorities, that code can be inserted on to those cards that can change the votes, and the code is undetectable. I used to have a Top Secret security clearance working in ComSec (communications material security) and I know that in order to know whether classified materials have been compromised a "tape seal" (signed by at least 2 people) must show it has been broken - the seals used should be sticky enough and fragile enough to rip if anyone attemts to tamper with them. Because elections have become so close, and unfortunately bitter, it is important that the process be unimpeachable. Unfortunately, even here in Dupage County - which does have better security than most places I've been involved in - the procedures are not followed consistently. I have taken part in processing absentee and write-in ballots at the Dupage County complex in 3 elections, and I can tell you from first hand experience that there are plenty of opportunities for mischief if you were so inclined. I sincerely hope that the non-compliance of our election laws by the DCEC as well as Cook County is due to misunderstanding or ignorance, but the only way to know is to have groups like the IBIP around to be a watchdog. The coverage of these issues by our local press has highlighted some of these issues, but I believe the press puts too much trust in the DCEC and should do some digging for facts on their own. The resistance to disclosure by the DCEC, as well as their apparant cozyness to Republican operatives, fuels distrust of the DCEC. In order to allay any fears that the DCEC (as well as Cook or any other county in Illinois, and the US as a whole) is committing vote fraud and/or manipulation they need to be transparent, and to allow any legitimate organization to monitor and/or audit the vote in an open forum. Democracy is having the right to vote in private, and to have those votes counted in public. I do find it curious that the Dupage GOP is defending the DCEC - you should investigate why - in addition to Dan Curry how many other partisan operatives to they have official ties to, and what about contracts to companies run by relatives of commission members? Please continue to write about these issues - strive to be objective, it is THE most important issue that affects our Democracy.

Ted Slowik said:

"Google "brad friedman" and "democrat" and the first entry that pops up is an article with your byline for Democratic Underground"

Golly, you caught me!

Please send my apologies to Steve Smith, conservative Republican Texas Supreme Court Justice for supporting him in his election fight when he got screwed down there. And to Albert Howard (R) in New Hampshire and Mike Huckabee (R) in Washington.

While I didn't realize a clearly satirical line like "proud Liberal Hollywood Elitist" made me a partisan, I'm quite sure that since I was banned from Free Republican (another one of those Democratic partisan sites?) you'll likely not find my work there.

Please go look up the definition of partisan, because you haven't a clue, apparently.

While you're there, look up the definition of accuracy in reporting. Since it's been reported above that the Libertarians also link up to IBIP (as many of them do to me, in addition to Republicans, and Greens and independents), I'm sure you'll be issuing a correction and apology for your horrible swiftboating of IBIP disguised as news reporting?

Good god.

Response from host:

Gosh, Brad, there seems to be a bit of a disconnect between how others see you and how you see yourself. Here, you're described as liberal:

http://technorati.com/tag/brad+friedman

"Brad Friedman, a well-read liberal blogger, is losing respect in some quarters for relying on Chris Matthews‘ “reporting” on Hillary Clinton’s New Hampshire victory. His commenters and others are saying it weakens his argument to align with Matthews, an admitted Hillary hater."

National Public Radio describes you as liberal:

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Mark_F._(Thor)_Hearne

""NPR Covers the American Center for Voting Rights (ACVR) 'Voter Fraud' Scam. 'Liberal Blogger Brad Friedman' Interviewed in Report on Disappearance of GOP 'Vote Fraud' Fraudsters and Their White House Connections. Nobody from ACVR Agrees to Speak to Them on the Record, But the St. Louis Post-Dispatch Says Thor Hearne Has Some Complaints About The BRAD BLOG...," The Brad Blog, June 6, 2007.

And on and on and on.

That's super great that you champion voting rights for people of all parties, and I've thanked you for that, since earlier you seemed to indicate that it was every American's civic duty to thank you for what you do. But your voluminous writings and opinion pieces clearly show your party of choice. You being offended at being described as partisan is laughable, like the unexpected reaction one would have if Rush Limbaugh objected to being called conservative.

You seem lilke an egomaniac who found his calling in life after the GOP stole the election from Al Gore in 2000, so you abandoned acting and got into writing. Good for you. You've made a public figure out of yourself, obviously one of thin skin, who cannot distinguish the difference between factual reporting and commentary, such as that found here on this online community forum. As a public figure, you subject yourself to characterizations that are opinionated by nature. You're welcome to respond to the criticism all you like. Heck, I would, too, if my claim to fame was championing something nonpartisan like voting rights and somebody pointed out my obvious liberal bias.

"Excellent--and I've responded to the points you made earlier"

Not entirely. I'd still like to know why you explain away the DCEC's failure to abide by the election code requirement that judge's write their signatures on the ballot packages.

And now that other bloggers have brought up the front page headline, I think it's interesting that you describe the political leanings of George Soros and Barbra Streisand as not just left, not just far left, but "far left Dem fringe." Are there are any prominent conservatives that you would describe in a headline as being on the "far right Republican fringe"?

Why doesn't it surprise me that once again the Republicans have started a big lie but they stand behind it? It seems that the GOP is alive and well in DuPage County. I wonder if they have Karl Rove helping them out with their strategery? Oops, did I mistate that word...no, I couldn't have, since our very own president states it that way! IBIP critizes where there is room to criticize, and it hasn't been democrats in the last 10 years plotting and carrying out stolen elections. Even the conservative watch dog group Judicial Watch has been closely monitoring the elections, and administration of one of their very own, Bush, jr. Yes, they tend to lean conservative, but when there is wrong doing, they point it out no matter which party it is. This is to their credit. IBIP is no different. If IBIP witnessed democrats doing unscrupulous and even illegal activities, I know I could count on them to bring them out in the day light for all to see.

More pointless headlines...why doesn't you paper look into real news?

And what exactly is so wrong with George Soros and Barbara Striesand?

The DuPage Libertarians have had a link from their Activities page to the Illinois Ballot Integrity Project website for more than a year. Libertarians support honest elections and those who help ensure them, no matter their political affiliations.

We also support DuPage Against the War Now, yet with our strong positions for economic freedom and personal responsibility, are not a left-wing organization. Like many Americans, we reject the false dichotomy of left vs. right in favor of personal choices.

Ballot integrity is an idea we can all support. Concerned citizens are free to join the organization and volunteer to help.

When you go to the bank and make a deposit, do you expect a receipt? Do you expect a monthly or quarterly statement? Of course you do. You wouldn't accept some guy wearing a suit standing behind the counter assuring, "You don't need documentation. Trust us. Our bank has a spotless reputation."

So why would you expect anything less when depositing your vote? A vote is infinitely more precious than money. A vote is your family's home, health, well being, education, security, environment *and* money. A vote is whether or not that pothole in front of your home is going to get fixed. A vote is the water we drink and the air we breathe. A vote is war. A vote is peace. A vote is your very life.

Election reformists across the country are standing behind the counter telling the guy in a suit that his friendly smile just isn't good enough. We demand documentation. We demand transparency. We demand to see everyone who is handling our vote on the way to the vault. We demand to know if the vault is secure 24/7. We demand to see if our vote or voter registration is being tossed out the back door. We demand that those entrusted with our electoral process do not taint and diminish our vote with ties to fat cat cronies and self interests.

And we really couldn't care less if that guy in the suit is indignant, calls us names and hires thugs in an attempt to thwart our demands. We know we're right. We know our conviction for an open, fair, accurate and secure electoral process follows a moral, honorable and patriotic path to truth and light.

We call on DuPage citizens to join us behind that counter. As always, we welcome Democrats, Republicans, Greens, Independents, Libertarians, Progressives, Polka Dots, Whatevers. Stand up and be counted!

PLEASE print my name. Thank you.

These are the same people ........the children of illegal alien immigrants are US citizens because they were born here during harvest season.....

Posted by: Naperville Culture Warrior | March 3, 2008 10:22 AM

__________________________________________________________________________________________________

I would like to point out, because the moderator has failed do so, that it is the Constitution, not some group of people, that gives those children the right to be American Citizens.

I must say that I detect a bit of bias when the moderator fails to correct Naperville Culture Warrior on this very basic point.

In a perfect world, election results would be handled with the same integrity as the "chain of evidence" in a criminal trial. However, the job of election official is usually handled by semi-retired or psuedo-activist types that get paid about $50 for the day's effort. Should all the i's be dotted and t's be crossed, sure...that would be great but to suggest there's a conspiracy or cover-up is ludicrous. AG looked at it, said try to do better, but no criminal intent...end of story.

How many people would step forward to help out on election day if we started hauling them into jail/court every time a "watchdog" group claiming not to be partisan cries foul?

Fact: Better supervision of voting SOP's is needed. Let's throw a little $$ at the problem and pay these folks better, train them better and do backround checks....take the $ out of petty cash from the millions raised in this year's campaigns.

Fact: The IBIP is not "by-partisan"... they have an agenda

Fact: The Sun uncovered the gravy train of the IBIP and , as you can read, they're not happy about it

You're on.

Your liberal use of the word "promoted" in regards to D203 is a classic kill the messenger tactic that treats "promote" and "report" as interchangeable verbs.

I was not referring to anything printed in the Sun. I was referring to your blogpost where you reproduced an anonymous email from the author of an anonymous smear site - and thanked him for his contibutions to the "debate". I don't think anything on this blog is considered "reporting" - you say yourself this blog is about "expressing opinions". I have yet to see you "report" on any other anonymous emails you receive, so you clearly chose to "promote" that e-mailer's opinions (likely because you share them). As such, I stand by my wording. It does not "kill the messenger", it only shows that the messenger is not a neutral bystander.

And this blog is all about expressing opinions, even misguided ones like your's.

My opinion is that your (this blog, not the Sun) political reporting is extremely biased. My opinion is evidence based - and not misguided. In this case, the misguided opinions are all yours (as is the incorrect punctuation ;-) ) . To its' credit, the print version of the Sun does not seem to carry this bias.

Here is my evidence:
The headline as printed in the Sun - "Ballot group may have partisan ties; Election Commission critic has an agenda, GOP claims" is pretty much standard 2008 journalism - "reporting" what each side says without taking much of a stand on what is the truth. In contrast, this blog title - "GOP unmasks ballot group as front for Dems" is extremely biased. In the blog, these are not just "claims" made by political operatives - the GOP has "unmasked a front" - it is accepted as truth. In the print version, BIP "may have partisan ties" - in the blog they are a "front for Dems" and so their claims have no credibility.

I rest my case.

Response from Ted Slowik, host:

Good one, SSD. I would agree almost entirely with your assessment. Without a doubt this blog is a forum for expressing opinions, and I sincerely appreciate your opinion that in print The Sun is unbiased.

Newspapers have long been able to separate the objective stories reported in the news pages from the editorial stances and views expressed on the opinion pages. A front-page headline could read, "City achieves balanced budget," while in the same issue the Opinion page headline could read, "Taxpayers get raw deal."

In this thread, as with any other, I'll at times attempt to persuade, inform, even entertain. I'll definitely attempt to respond to any criticism directed at The Sun. Hopefully I'll keep an open mind and learn from that criticism.

I would rather discuss the issues we report on than our reporting of the issues. I expected more discussion about the GOP's claims that IBIP has partisan ties than our reporting that the GOP claims that IBIP has partisan ties. That tells me maybe we're deserving of the criticism, in this instance.

The issue isn't going away anytime soon. The DuPage Election Commission undoubtedly will continue to make mistakes, and IBIP will undoubtedly continue to watch it like a hawk. And we'll undoubtedly continue to cover the ongoing controversy.

I myself witnessed the ballot box seal being applied at a polling place in the Feb 5th primary. It's not a "post-it note", it's about 6" x 8" in size and is meant to cover part of the top and side of the box as a tamper evident seal. There is ample space for the judges to sign and time stamp them. The glue is about the same as a post-it note. Anyone can open these boxes and do whatever they want with the ballots inside in the privacy of the DCEC counting room or a detour on the way to Wheaton and reseal the boxes without anyone being the wiser. The same kind of seal was used in New Hampshire primary from the videos I've seen. That would be New Hampshire where the Democratic Secretary of State ought to be called to account just like the DuPage Election Commission. How's that for a little bi-partisanship for you Ted?

The DCEC has made some laughable claims and has questionable practices that ought to be investigated by any self respecting news organization. For instance like the news release on their website titled "Tests Find Diebold Touch-Screen Voting 100 Percent Accurate". Anybody who has election judged or poll watched anywhere in DuPage knows that's just not true. On Feb 5th in one polling place alone I saw the DRE break down twice, the first time at about 8am when it said it was out of paper after 16 votes had been cast on it and second time during the evening rush at 5:30PM. The "expert" sent out from the DCEC to fix it among other things took the CPU/screen out of the machine and tried banging it on the frame. After his valiant attempts to fix it the screen said "there is no election currently loaded on this machine". He then recommended they take the whole machine back to the DCEC so they could try and resurrect the ballots cast on it.

The paper ballot scanner worked better. It broke down just before the poll closed. It ate one ballot but didn't register it on the counter. The judges rightly put the rest of the ballots in the compartment in the front of the machine. Did the DCEC count them? Those votes didn't wind up on the machine tape. It's anybody's guess if they did. The back compartment that holds the write in ballots the machine itself segregates held 9 ballots. Only 5 of those ballots had any actual write-ins on them. The rest appeared to be regularly inked ballots that the scanner misunderstood as having write-ins.

The point is these machines have been decertified in states from CA to FL. Major universities like Princeton, John Hopkins and Stanford have tested them and found them wanting. It takes 10 minutes to find demonstrations of the very machines we use in DuPage, that the DCEC lauds as perfect to be undetectable vote fraud enabling junk. Yet the STNG thinks the issue is the fact that the people who are trying to expose this are aligned with the party that somehow never wins here?

Response from host:

NOYB, thanks for the eyewitness account. Look, for years now we've been reporting on IBIP's complaints about the DuPage Election Commission. I recall we've criticized the election commission in editorials, saying their Freedom of Information Act fees were outrageous, is one that comes to mind off the top of my head. Until this article the IBIP must have been very pleased with the coverage it has received in The Sun. We have no agenda here.

I'm not here to defend the election commission, or the Republican Party. I'm strictly responding to constructive criticism about our report. If it turns out that the GOP suckered us into taking the bait for some propaganda it spewed, then we would make up for our error in judgment. And we'll continue to report whatever complaints IBIP uncovers about the DuPage Election Commission, without prejudice, as we've done all along.

Thanks for the suggestion about checking out GOP operative Dan Curry being on the commission's payroll as a consultant. We intend to pursue that angle.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________

And when you do pursue that "angle" I would suggest the title, "Election Commission May have Partisan Ties" with the subtitle, "Election Commission spends $3,000 per month of taxpayer money for partisan consultant."

Believe me, you won't have to do much looking. All you have to do is go to Dan Curry's site where he proudly admits that one of his "clients" is the DuPage County Election Commission.... This is from one of his posts: One group has been hounding a client (DuPage County Election Commission).......http://www.reversespin.com/?p=708

He is clearly partisan. Just take two minutes looking at the posts on his site. I challenge you and your paper to expose the election commission as a partisan organization that has employed a political partisan for $3,000 per month of taxpayer money. I bet you won't do it.

Response from host:

You're on. If you don't see a print article on GOP operative Curry being on the election commission's payroll by month's end, I'll buy you a drink.

To Moderator "The facts - as clearly reported in the story - speak for themselves" Jim
and Host "Our article struck a nerve. Here's a scathing critique" Ted:
Vote fraud stories are common every election season, so I think the SUN struck a nerve
this time due to the wording of the Sunday headline vs. the content of the article. My biggest problem was with the headline's mention of Soros/Streisand. First if the Soros/Streisand connection warrents mention in the headline, why isn't the so-called connection not written about until the second half of the article? There it states:
"The state Republican Party also criticized IBIP for its connection to the National Ballot Integrity Project, which uses promotional material produced by the Public Campaign. That organization receives funding from a number of left-wing groups, including George Soros' Open Society Project and the Streisand Foundation."
These statements don't seem to be "clearly factual", as blogger Naperville Culture Warrior seems to believe that this means IBIP got money from soros/leftwing groups, while I read it as the Public Campaign got funding, not National Ballot Integrity Project or IBIP. And now Bob Wilson questions the article. The leftwing funds->Public Campaign->National Ballot Integrity Project -> IBIP appears to weak to warrent being headline material.
The IBIP claims against the election commission is as much a story as GOP claiming it is partisian. Where was the front-page headlines about the IBIP criticisms before the SUN felt a need to undergo an "Exclusive Sun Investigation"?
The "Ballot Group May Have Partisian Ties" headline I see on the Web under Sunday's news seems more appropriate. But then the heading for the potluck is "GOP unmasks ballot group as front for Dems" is most misleading.

-first time writer, long time reader

Response from host:

Thanks for the comments. Your criticism of the front page is valid and well articulated.

"Is there anyone without strong partisan ties who would like to comment on the article?"

Aside from my employer and my church, I belong to no organization, political or otherwise. I don't know any of the people who have posted on this blog, nor do I know any memebers of IBIP or the DuPage County Election Commission. Is that non-partisan enough for you?

Response from host:

Excellent--and I've responded to the points you made earlier :)

I say the red flag is the attempt to characterize those who seek election integrity as having criminal intent.

Response from host:

Huh? If by "those who seek election integrity" you mean IBIP, who the heck is accusing them of criminal intent? Certainly not us. All we did was say the GOP called them partisan.

Actually, I believe it was Gayl Ferraro, chair of the Democratic Party of DuPage County, who in 2004 described the election commission's mistakes at that time as "a blatant and coordinated effort by DuPage County Republican officials to turn the election in their favor."

Please give me a link to the "news articles of substance" you wrote on the election commission - I must have missed them.

Response from host:

Gladly--on Tuesday when I'm back in the office and have access to our internal electronic archive.

In the meantime, here's one of our articles I found posted on the Democratic Underground's Web site:

Watchdog group highlights flaws in DuPage elections

March 28, 2007
By Paige Winfield Staff Writer
Naperville Sun

Lax security and illegal destruction of public records by the DuPage Election Commission leave the results of last November's election in serious doubt, contend members of the Illinois Ballot Integrity Project.

Leaders of the organization - which acts as a whistle-blower for election commissions across the state - claim the commission has violated the Local Record Act by failing to obtain permission from the secretary of state to destroy election materials.

Project members also point to five alleged security breaches they say compromised the integrity of election results in DuPage, while not directly violating state or federal law.

The Illinois Ballot Integrity Project is alleging that the DuPage Election Commission allowed the following security breaches during the November 2006 election:

• Dozens of memory cards containing election results were not returned securely to commission headquarters on Election Night. One observer estimates as many as 80 memory cards were left at polling places. Eventually, two-thirds of these cards were returned that night, but roughly 25 stayed out all night long, leaving the data compromised.

• Touch screen machines left out all night at polling locations throughout the county.

• The commission failed to conduct criminal background checks on the technicians who had access to memory cards, machine components and the tabulation room.

• The commission did not conduct a hand-counted audit of early votes cast on the touch screen machines.

• Five palm pilots containing private voter information were reported missing by an election judge after judges' training in October 2006. It is unknown if the devices were found or if the information contained on them was altered.

*snip*

The commission allowed "serious breaches in the chain of custody" during the election, Jean Kaczmarek, co-chair of the project's DuPage chapter, told the County Board on Tuesday.
"Unless changes in the process take place, there will continue to be little or no confidence in the election results," Kaczmarek said.

Continued from host:

Here's another one, Barb. This one mentions Bob Babcock, who we identified as both a member of IBIP and Operation Turn DuPage Blue, and who Bob Wilson insists is not a good example of IBIP's partisan ties:

Newspaper: SUN PUBLICATIONS
Date: 07/12/2006
Day of Week: Wednesday
Edition: THENAPSUN
Section: AROUND TOWN
Page: 12
Headline: Residents demand change in DuPage elections oversight
Byline: By Kathy Cichon
Credit: staff writer


WHEATON - Citing concerns about the lack of transparency in elections, a group of residents on Tuesday urged DuPage County Board members to have immediate oversight of the county Election Commission.

"Right now in DuPage County, the Election Commission is out of control and needs to be replaced," Downers Grove resident Bob Babcock said.

During a rare night meeting of the County Board, members of the Illinois Ballot Integrity Project blasted the commission's use of the Diebold electronic touch-screen voting terminals as well as its process for destroying records.

For nearly a year the commission has drawn fire from residents who say the electronic voting technology is not secure.

"It is very important that we be able to trust the results of
our votes," Naperville resident Stephanie Downs Hughs said. "Many of us feel now that we cannot. There is no
double-check."

While election officials have repeatedly said the touch-screen machines are secure, opponents of the technology have cited several reports and studies, some from governmental agencies such as the Government Accountability Office, indicating there is a problem with the machines.

Naperville resident Melisa Urda, co-chair of the DuPage chapter of the Ballot Integrity Project, compared the situation to Ford choosing to do a cost-benefit analysis of its Pinto when it was discovered there were safety problems.

"No cost-benefit analysis can be made of our electoral
process," she said. "Either we have confidence in the
system or our ride with democracy comes to a screeching halt."

Members of the group also raised concerns about the Election Commission's failure to fill out a necessary form to destroy public records.

"The commission has never bothered to fill out the paperwork mandated by the Local Records Act for the destruction of public records. It's not a matter of filling out a line on the form incorrectly, it's a matter of not filling out the form at all," said Glen Ellyn resident Jean Kaczmarek, who co-chairs the Ballot Integrity Project chapter with Urda. "Destroying public records without compliance to the Local Records Act is a Class 4 felony."

After the meeting, County Board Chairman Robert Schillerstrom, R-Naperville, said he didn't know that much about the incident.

"I presume the Election Commission is in compliance with the law," he said.

Schillerstrom said he is not sure he understands the group's complaints.

"Philosophically, what they said, I agree with," he
said. "We want to have the cleanest elections around."

Continue from host:

And here's another one, that includes the DCEC's response to the AG in the records-disposal dispute:

Newspaper: SUN PUBLICATIONS
Date: 01/17/2008
Day of Week: Thursday
Edition: THENAPSUN
Section: AROUND TOWN
Page: 8
Headline: Local officials say procedure was followed
Byline: By Paige Winfield
Credit: Staff writer
Caption: Madigan

Election documents in DuPage were improperly destroyed, according to Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan, but the county's Election Commission says it was not out of line.

Accusations by the Illinois Ballot Integrity Project prompted an investigation by Madigan and DuPage State's Attorney Joe Birkett as to whether the commission complied with local and federal law in disposing of documents from the 2004 general election.

The commission should have received permission from the state to destroy ballots after the election, Madigan said. But Pat Bond, the election commission's attorney, says it would have been impossible to do that and obey state law at the same time.

Code for state elections requires that ballots are destroyed 60 days after an election. But the Local Records Act says an application must be filed 60 days prior to document destruction.

That means it would be impossible for the election commission to comply with both codes because they would have to file for permission before the election even took place, Bond said.

"You'd have to ask for ballots that have not been voted
yet to be destroyed," Bond said. "That's silly."

Bond said the commission will seek clarification of the law, either through legislation or litigation.

Birkett agrees with Madigan that the election commission should have received permission from the state before destroying the 2004 ballots. He said he will stay out of the matter if the commission decides to seek further clarification on the law.

"As far as I'm concerned, I support the attorney general's opinion," he said. "If the election commission wants to go to Springfield, that's fine, but we would not play a role in that."

I never denied being the Democratic Candidate for County Board in District 2. Why would you be asking only for comments from those without strong partisan ties, when you quoted the GOP and its "operatives" repeatedly in your story?
The fact that Lisa Madigan has officially stated that the commission should have received a certificate before destroying any records is a clear-cut cause for concern for DuPage voters, even if her office did not yet cite any criminal charges. It's an outrage for that to be dismissed by the writer while she attacks the volunteers who donate their time to work for honest elections to benefit voters of EVERY party. If honest elections is a "partisan" issue, something's rotten in Denmark - or DuPage.

Response from host:

You didn't deny, but you didn't disclose, either. Nice placement of the word "yet," as if to hint that criminal charges might be forthcoming, when it's clear from the AG's opinion the office has no intention of pursuing the matter criminally--ever.

Again, no one is disputing the mistakes made by the DuPage Election Commission, mistakes that we've reported. The red flag here is the attempts to characterize the mistakes as motivated by criminal intent, when there is no indication from any authority that the election commission's errors are anything more than common negligence.

Mentioning the GOP in the headline as the Election Commission's defender is the first red flag. If the election commission is non-partisan as we expect it to be, why would it need the defense of the "GOP"? What's more, if the GOP takes exception to ANY organization that advocates honest elections, doesn't this in itself sound an alarm? Even if IBIP were a "partisan" organization as the article claims but does not prove, they would not deserve the same scrutiny as our government agencies. Unlike our election commission, IBIP is not on the public payroll, a critical difference the article doesn't address. The details of AG Lisa Madigan's investigation into the commission's "prematurely destroying polls tapes and failing to obtain a disposal certificate according to the Local Records Act" would have been a news article of substance. Instead, this is nothing more than a personal attack on the recent nominees of the Naperville League of Women Voters' Democracy in Action Award. What irony! I propose a news article, headlined to mimic Ms. Winfield's style: "Billing itself as a 'Newspaper,' Suburban Tabloid Attacks Local Volunteers to Squelch Warranted Criticism of Election Commission - Operating as 'News Agency,' It's Proven Its Partisan Position." Yes, someone has an agenda here as you state, but it isn't IBIP.

Response from host:

And you would be the Barb Dahl who is the Democrat running for County Board District 2? Is there anyone without strong partisan ties who would like to comment on the article?

The Sun did report extensively on the Ballot Integrity Project's complaints about the DuPage Election Commission, and the attorney general's response, in "news articles of substance" as you say.

"And we accurately reported that the election commission disputes IBIT's claim about judges being required to sign ballot boxes."

Actually, you didn't even report that the election commission disputes the claim. Here's what you said:

"While the election code does say that judges shall write their signatures on bound packages of ballots, such is not required by the commission."

While it might be inferred from this statement that the commission disputes the claim, all it says is that they essentially don't enforce any such rule. And since you state in the same sentence that the election code DOES contain such a rule, why not follow up on the election commission's reasoning for not enforcing it?

Thanks for posting my letter, and, in the bargain, continuing to further your reputation as lousy reporters.

You describe me as "a partisan blogger". What "party" would I would be blogging for exactly?

Or do you simply enjoy making up facts about me, as you apparently did when it came to the IBIP folks as well.

You guys are really a piece of work.

Since IBIP is fighting for YOUR democracy, as well as theirs, as unpaid volunteers, and would certainly welcome Republicans who wish to participate in the fight for transparency in elections (I work with and support such Republicans, independents, Greens, Liberterians, Democrats, etc. every day myself), I'll say to THEM what you people should have said from the get-go: "Thank you."

And I'm quite sure the folks at IBIP would say in return, had you had the decency to thank them, "your welcome," no matter what political party you are or aren't a part of.

Now please try to salvage some modicum of responsibility and retract the incorrect, irresponsible, evidence-free characterization you've made concerning me. Thank you.

Response from Ted Slowik, host:

Brad,

Your indignant tone about being described as partisan is a little surprising, and no apology is forthcoming. Google "brad friedman" and "democrat" and the first entry that pops up is an article with your byline for Democratic Underground, and the tagline at the end says you're a "proud Liberal Hollywood Elitist." Another bio says you've been a contributor from 2004-present to Democratic Underground, which is in the business of "providing political satire and commentary for Democrats."

I could go on, but suffice to say there is ample documentation to support our description of you as partisan.

Cheers for exposing ballot irregularities, I really do thank you for that, and if the DuPage Election Commission ever does anything that rises to the level of some of the other scandals you've exposed I hope you're all over them.

In response to the article published in March 2, 2008 online edition of the Naperville Sun and other STNG papers, we find that despite various communication with your reporter, you failed to get your facts straight, and by and large, missed the real story.

The Illinois Ballot Integrity Project is not now, nor has it ever been affiliated in any way with the National Ballot Integrity Project. We have never received any money from nor contributed any money to that organization. To the best of our knowledge, no member of IBIP is a member of NBIP. You might have wanted to fact-check this with NBIP, after all, one of its directors is only a local phone call away in Naperville. IBIP is not a chapter, affiliate, coalition partner nor any other sub-group of NBIP.

Further, the Illinois Ballot Integrity Project has never received any funds whatsoever, directly or indirectly, from George Soros, Barbara Streisand, the Open Society Project, Public Campaign, the Streisand Foundation, or any other similar and/or affiliated organization. This connection is, in short, a complete fabrication - something your reporter could have and should have fact-checked before you making it the focus of your article.

Your reporting that Bob Babcock is the treasurer of IBIP is factually incorrect. He is not now, nor has he ever been an officer or director of IBIP.

The implied criticism of IBIP members addressing DuPage Against the War Now (DAWN) is especially humorous, considering that the IBIPer's appearance follows that of DuPage County Election Commission executive director, Robert T. Saar, who appeared before the group less than two months ago. Now what are we to make of that connection?

Here's the real story: In 2005, IBIP discovered that the DuPage County Election Commission claimed that certain election records had been destroyed and it could not supply them in response to Freedom of Information Act requests. Research of the statutes and Commission financial records indicated that if the Commission was destroying public records without approval from the Local Record Commission, it was apparently violating Illinois law. These are facts and matters of public record.

The Commission responded by hiring the firm of Bond, Dickson & Associates, at taxpayer expense - apparently in an effort to buttress their position - and continued to destroy records without applying for or receiving the proper permits and certificates. The latter is a matter of fact, taken from the Commission's own records.

IBIP continued to insist that the Commission was subject to the Act, based on an earlier opinion from the Illinois Attorney General, coincidentally involving another DuPage public agency. IBIP believed that the (Republican) Illinois Attorney General had already resolved the issue in 1999 on the applicability of the State Local Records Act concerning the DuPage County Public Safety Communications Office in opinion 99-021. This opinion is a matter of public record, and was easily available to the Commission's counsel.

On December 26, 2007, the Illinois Attorney General agreed with IBIP's position and issued an opinion that stated in pertinent part:

"The DuPage County Election Commission must obtain the approval of the Local Records Commission before disposing of any public records in its possession. Although the [Illinois] Election Code and the Federal laws addressing the preservation of election records establish minimum retention periods for some election records, it is my opinion that these laws do not supersede or conflict with the procedural requirements of the Local Records Act."

In summary, IBIP alleged that the DuPage County Election Commission was violating Illinois State Law by not following the provisions of the Illinois Local Records Act. So far, an agency of the Secretary of State's Office and the Illinois State Attorney General agree!

Your reporter went on to write, "While the election code does say that judges shall write their signatures on bound packages of ballots, such is not required by the commission." Or put another way, the Commission doesn't require judges to sign the ballot boxes as mandated by the Illinois State Election Code.

Here we have, in your reporter's own words, two violations of Illinois law by the DuPage County Election Commission, and the focus of your story is unsubstantiated charges by GOP operatives?

This is a case study on GOP echo-chamber success. The DuPage County Election Commission hired Dan Curry for $3,000 a month (more than IBIP's annual budget) to do damage control, and he's delivered. It's unfortunate that the Naperville Sun and STNG bought the spin - your readers deserve better.

Sincerely,

Bob Wilson
Chairman
Illinois Ballot Integrity Project

Response from Ted Slowik, host:

The Illinois Ballot Integrity Project's own Web site identifies Bob Babcock as a member:

http://www.ballot-integrity.net/docs/DuPage_Release_6-29-2006_v3.pdf.

And the Democratic organization in DuPage County identifies Bob Babcock as treasurer of the Illinois Ballot Integrity Project:

http://www.turndupageblue.com/who.php

You seem to bristle at the GOP's claim that IBIT's operations in DuPage to date have been partisan, when there is evidence to support the GOP's charge.
That was the point of the report.

We reported the national organization's ties to Soros and Streisand; we never said the state group accepted donations directly from them. However, the home page for the National Ballot Integrity Project, www.ballotintegrity.org, says that Dr. Larry J. Quick, is co-founder of the National Ballot Integrity Project and co-founder of the Illinois Ballot Integrity Project. Yet even though the national and state groups share the same name, the exact same mission and the same founder, you insist there is absolutely no tie whatsoever between the two organizations.

We've reported several stories over the years about IBIT's complaints about the DuPage Election Commission. While you cite the attorney general's opinion as validation of IBIT's concerns, another could just as easily say the attorney general found inconsequential errors were made and told the commission to correct its mistakes, hence the AG's indication that the DuPage Election Commission faced no punitive consequences for its actions. In other words, no harm, no foul. And we accurately reported that the election commission disputes IBIT's claim about judges being required to sign ballot boxes.

Thanks for the suggestion about checking out GOP operative Dan Curry being on the commission's payroll as a consultant. We intend to pursue that angle.

"Moderator Jim: The facts speak for themselves."

So does the reporting of the facts.

"The job of the newspaper is to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable." Finley Peter Dunne

Somewhere in repeating the DuPage GOP talking points, this has gotten lost. Ted, first you promoted an anonymous smear website attacking the school board and referendum, then you are providing this megaphone for the DuPage GOP and now insulting Mr. Fitzgerald. I do not think that the Sun should show such partisan bias in a public forum.

Ted, are you angling for a job at Fox "News"?

Response from Ted:

No, thanks, SSD, I'm happy where I'm at. You read way too much into my response to your attack on us. I admire Patrick Fitzgerald and don't see how you could possibly spin my comment as an insult. Clearly the masterful spin doctors at IBIT have inspired you to try some spin of your own. Your liberal use of the word "promoted" in regards to D203 is a classic kill the messenger tactic that treats "promote" and "report" as interchangeable verbs. (Of course, Democrats like Dianne McGuire are transparancy personified and would never stoop to using anonymous , misleading tactics in an election like the 2007 school board race in D203). Finally, expressing opinions has been a part of newspapers for as long as the press has existed, and my personal views in no way cloud The Sun's objective reporting on any issue or topic. The reporter pitched the story idea to the editors, not the other way around. And this blog is all about expressing opinions, even misguided ones like your's.

"You yourself said our story reported the irregularities in DuPage. How, then, were we not fair?"

I think Brad Friedman answered this question about as well as it can be answered. It's not the facts, so much as the way you reported them.

Moderator Jim: The facts speak for themselves.

are infractions such as sealing ballot boxes with Post-It notes minor oversights, or major criminal acts indicative of a GOP conspiracy to steal elections, as BIP would have us believe?

If they were only "minor oversights", why would the State Republican Party be concerened and be releasing "spin" in attempts to undermine BIP's credibility? If they were only "minor oversights", couldn't the Election Commission defend itself using just the facts?

Occam's razor suggests the State Party gets involved only when the State Party has something to protect. And if the State Republican Party has something to protect in the DuPage Election Commission - something stinks.

Response from host:

If they were more than minor oversights, the Democratic attorney general or our heroic nonpartisan U.S. attorney out of Chicago would see fit to prosecute.

Note from host:

You yourself said our story reported the irregularities in DuPage. How, then, were we not fair?

It is not fair because the a response from the GOP should never have been given credence. It is an ad homimen attack and as such wholly without merit. Reporting the GOP talking points falsely reduces the credibility of BIP - without refuting any of BIP's claims. This is the very definition of "spin".

If BIP's claims are false, then the Election Commission should produce facts to show the claims are false. If BIP's claims are true - then folks should be held accountable. The GOP ad hominem attacks only muddy the waters. Why is the GOP speaking for the Election Commission? What are they protecting?

As for the Democratic Attorney General, Illinois has a long standing history of bi-partisan power sharing at the top - I think it would be a mistake to assume that innocence can be inferred by this not being prosecuted by the Attorney General. This is unfortunate but true.

Response from host:

No one's disputing BIP's claims. We reported them. The question is, are infractions such as sealing ballot boxes with Post-It notes minor oversights, or major criminal acts indicative of a GOP conspiracy to steal elections, as BIP would have us believe?

Our article struck a nerve. Here's a scathing critique from Brad Friedman, a partisan blogger, actor and freelance writer for Hustler magazine, among other publications:

Ms. Winfield,

What an embarrassing article you've written for the Naperville Sun.

("Ballot group may have partisan ties", http://www.suburbanchicagonews.com/napervillesun/news/821358,6_1_NA02_BALLOT_S1.article)
Had the Illinois Ballot Integrity Project (IBIP) alleged -- without evidence -- that the DuPage County Election Commission was running a drug ring would you have written a story headlined "Election Commission may be narcotics traffickers"?

The most amusing/embarrassing "evidence" you present in your irresponsible attack story concerning the patriots of IBIP who do their work as volunteers in order to improve transparency in democracy, and who receive no salary from anyone (much less a political party, which would certainly have given them your alleged "partisan ties" had that been the case) is this graf:

the Web sites for both the Democratic Party of DuPage County and Operation Turn DuPage Blue post links to the IBIP site.

What?! The local Democratic Party and their supporters are in favor of democracy and those who fight for it?! And they're linking up to IBIP?! You've certainly nailed that story! What, the New York Times didn't need any help in their own swiftboating articles against John McCain?!

Good thing none of the Republican-leaning websites you're aware of linked to IBIP! If they do, or at least if the GOP operatives you work with bother to tell you about it, you'll have to write another story about IBIP's "ties" to the Republican party!

On the other hand, you could certainly have written an article about the tie -- known, not alleged -- between the DuPage Election Commissions and the Republican party, and the salary they've paid to Republican operative Dan Curry to run interference and propaganda for them.

That's actual public record stuff with actual hard evidence though, so it may not have been your cup of tea. You might have found Mr. Curry also had unique access to the central tabulating area during the recent IL Primary election, while unpaid, members of the public -- whose election the commission is supposed to be running -- did not.

Did you bother to ask Mr. Curry about any of those things while you were busy getting tips from him?

Saddest of all, buried at the bottom of your story, you confirm actual violations of the law by the DuPage County Election Commission, but chose not to focus on them, even though they are actual stories worth covering for your readers.

Among other allegations, the report accuses the commission of prematurely destroying poll tapes and failing to obtain a disposal certificate according to the Local Records Act. While Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan said the commission should have received a certificate before destroying any records, her office did not cite any criminal charges.

So the state AG confirmed that, even though no criminal charges have yet been filed, that the Commission violated the law? And that comes at the end of your story?? Before you go on to add:

While the election code does say that judges shall write their signatures on bound packages of ballots, such is not required by the commission.

So the DuPage County Election Commission doesn't require folks to follow the state election code either?

Two confirmed violations of the Rule of Law by the DuPage County Election Commission -- confirmed by you in your own story -- versus absolutely no violation of anything by IBIP and yet they are the focus of your story?

Noticing anything amiss here, Ms. Winfield?

Please keep up the bad work. It's only your democracy at stake.

Brad
Los Angeles, CA

"Master-spinster" George Soros and his merry secular-progressives strike again. Why do we need left-wing radical groups like this lurking in the shadows under a cloak of mystery and money? They want you to believe there's a conspiracy behind every election, every school board decision; every politician's word is encrypted with some hidden meaning. They read too many romantic spy novels.

On the other hand...why can't election officials just read the book and follow SOP's so these organizations have nothing to do besides collect "hanging chads" and look through their binoculars at their neighbor's houses at night?

My compliments to The Sun for at least identifying where the money trail came from on the "Illinois Ballot Integrity Project". These are the same people that prefer "Happy Holidays" instead of "Merry Christmas" and the same folks who say teachers and professors know better how to raise our children then us (parents). That repeat child-predators and rapists should be rehabilitated not punished, homosexual marriages are cool and the children of illegal alien immigrants are US citizens because they were born here during harvest season.....gotta keep an eye on these people, they've infiltrated most media.

Newspapers and all media are getting out of hand writing stories of "allegations" and headlines as if they are true! We, the public, are getting quite wary of this method of devisiveness. It makes for unrest, untruth, irresponsibility and does not promote democracy for the American citizen.
Let us REALLY clean up elections and procedures so that a "free" fair honest election process can finally occur in America....honestly, THAT is what the people want and this party politics deceit is enough already! We GET it.
DuPage County or anywhere! Calling the kettle black is ridiculous in that county......because the demographics changes, the ruling party everywhere is getting anxious and beginning to attack with lies. Too bad for our country.

You yourself admit that Bush stole the 2000 election from Gore. There are many, many documented "irregularities" in the 2004 Bush/Kerry election (especially in Ohio). If the Republicans have captured the White House twice through vote fraud and voter intimidation, what incentive do they have to stop? Maybe BIP started as a nonpartisan group, but there are no Republicans interested in free and fair elections? So by default it is full of Democrats?

Your story shows highlights that ballot security in DuPage is clearly lacking, but instead chooses to shoot the messenger. The GOP is making an ad hominem attack because ballot security is obviously sloppy. And the Sun amplifies the ad hominem attack?

Unsigned, open boxes? Sealed with Post-its? The Sun's own story highlights multiple violations of the state code by the election commission.

Many of the elections were very, very close - and while I am not a big Doug Krause fan, If I were him I would find this very upsetting. Even I find it upsetting. Krause was defeated by a sitting County Board member by a handful of votes? Votes counted by cronies of sitting Board members? I'm not saying that I think anything illegal happened, but if the folks counting and certifying the votes were non-partisan it would be a lot more comforting.

Josef Stalin was famous for saying it only mattered who counted the votes - In DuPage all of the votes are unfortunately counted by Republicans. History teaches that one party rule breeds corruption. It also teaches that sunshine is the best disinfectant. Please research the claims of protesters and the veracity of those claims instead of just questioning their motives.

If I wanted to read a paper that just parroted whatever the Republican party says - I would get the Tribune. I would like to hold the Sun to a higher standard.

Note from host:

You yourself said our story reported the irregularities in DuPage. How, then, were we not fair? Bottom line, the Democratic attorney general in a state controlled by Democrats gave the DuPage Election Commission a tiny tap on the wrist. If the problems here were major, wouldn't Madigan be all over them?

"The facts - as clearly reported in the story - speak for themselves."

It's a fact that the group really isn't non-partisan, but it's also appears to be true that the Election Commission has not been dotting its i's and crossing its t's.

As far as the clarity of the article:
"While the election code does say that judges shall write their signatures on bound packages of ballots, such is not required by the commission."

Is it or is it not a violation of the election code to not require judges to sign the ballot packages? If its not a violation, then what does the first part of the sentence mean? If it is a violation, then why doesn't the commission require it, and doesn't this lend merit to IBIP's accusations?

The county board of elections does need to be squeaky clean about following and enforcing its and the state's policies and procedures regarding elections. Seems from the Sun article that it has not been, and worse, does not care to discuss it. Rather than attack the make-up of the group, can we determine if indeed the seal was broken on a ballot box, or if the boxes were sealed appropriately?

I think this is, at best, a case of the Naperville Sun trying to create a story where none exists. At worst, it is attacking the messenger because you don't like the message.

Moderator Jim: The facts - as clearly reported in the story - speak for themselves.

Now if we can only get the Sun to unmask the various Education front groups in District 203, we'd finally be getting somewhere.