Posted on 03/22/2006 4:06:02 AM PST by Chi-townChief
The race for Cook County Board president dragged on early Wednesday with strident accusations of voter fraud and missing black ballots -- but no declared winner.
As counting of the ballots stretched past 2 a.m. Wednesday, hospitalized incumbent John Stroger was edging out challenger Forrest Claypool, 53 percent to 47 percent with 80 percent of the precincts reporting.
Before Stroger pulled ahead, supporters of both candidates alleged improprieties in the tallies.
The Stroger camp even went so far as to charge that votes from predominantly black precincts were purposely being withheld.
"Our community has been disenfranchised. This process at this point has been a farce," said state Sen. Donne Trotter, complaining that the counting of votes from the 8th, 17th and 29th wards -- predominantly black -- were lagging.
But city election chairman Langdon Neal said there was no way to tell which precincts the uncounted ballots came from.
"It would be guesswork on their part because I can't tell you where those votes are coming from," Neal said.
Claypool adviser David Axelrod said with so many ballots unaccounted for, they were concerned about who was controlling the ballots.
"Any time you have loose ballots, you have to worry about shenanigans," Axelrod said. "It's a shame such a hard-fought election has to come down to something like this."
Claypool held a lead with half the votes counted but as the city count progressed, and Stroger pulled ahead of Claypool, the accusations from the Stroger camp subsided.
"They have assured us with their processes and what they have put in place that they will be able to confidently count all of the ballots. Right now we're going to take them at their word," state Rep. Marlow Colvin said after meeting with Neal.
The city's board of election workers planned to count ballots until 2 a.m. and then would reconvene at 1 p.m. today if needed.
Much of the problems center on the shift to new, electronic voting machines and meshing their results with votes cast on optical scan machines.
Those new machines cost the federal government $52 million, and city and county officials had expressed concerns because they had only four months to learn the software.
City election spokesman Tom Leach said they experienced similar glitches in 1982, when converting from machine voting to punch cards.
The drama surrounding the ballots compounded an already tight race, as Stroger recovers at Rush University Medical Center from a stroke he suffered last week.
Doctors said the best they can hope for is that Stroger regains limited movement -- though they acknowledged he may have suffered permanent brain damage.
In campaign stops over the weekend, Stroger's son, Chicago Ald. Todd Stroger (8th), told supporters to hear none of it -- that his father would be back and ready to lead. But in an interview late Tuesday, he said his father is "up and down" about the election, suggesting he may not understand all that is happening.
Stroger campaign spokeswoman Anne-Marie St. Germaine said, "the mood is very optimistic," and added that while a celebration might be muted because of Stroger's condition, "there will be feelings of congratulations for him. He'll be thrilled to hear some good news."
Stroger is trying to hang on to the seat he's held since 1994, while Claypool is trying to shake up the establishment and upset the Democratic Party machine.
Entering the Knickerbocker Hotel earlier, where supporters were gathering, Claypool said, "We feel good about what we're hearing out in the field, and we're confident."
Stroger campaign co-chairman Tom Hynes said earlier that it appeared it would be "a promising night," though "there's so many conflicting reports, you can't tell what's good and what's not good."
Some expected an outpouring of sympathy and rallying among Stroger's base, while he remains hospitalized, bedridden by the stroke.
Still others emphasized that if Stroger can't carry the Democratic nomination into November, the county's ward bosses -- not the voters -- will pick the nominee.
Claypool said voters were set "to make a statement about what kind of government they want in Cook County," and "against the old-style politics, the old-style machine and all the problems it creates."
Republican Peraica unopposed
But low voter turnout kept both sides hedging their bets late.
Hynes said a low turnout "is positive for us," largely because Stroger's field organization went door-to-door to get out the vote.
At stake is control of more than 25,000 jobs in the $3 billion government that is responsible for running the county hospitals, its jail and courts.
Stroger, 76, has held the president's seat for more than 10 years -- the first African American to win the office.
Claypool, 48, meanwhile, has pushed a reform platform, providing Stroger with the greatest challenge of his career.
The winner of the primary contest is set to face Republican Tony Peraica, who ran unopposed, while also running unopposed for his county board seat.
CHICAGOLAND PING
The obligatory "race" card was thrown, and a token "Bush's fault" inuendio. Operations remain normal in C(r)ook County.
I voted via the computerized machine...was really easy!
Bookmarked: (Again!) under fraud, 2006.....
This is like a horse race at the old Saigon race track, where the result was decided by who doped best and last. Both sides are trying as hard as they can to fake ballots ans steal the election--the only question's which one's the beater thief.
"Black ballots"?
I doubt the author would ever say "White ballots" or "Asian ballots".
i was in Chicago last week. i skimmed the article and didn't see a mention of the fact that Stroger is in the hospital for a stroke. doctors were quoted as saying the situation doesn't look very good. the dems will get to appoint Stroger's successor should he win re-election and not be able to complete his term.
oops, just re-read the article and the info in my previous comment is about half-way through it.
....some people never read the whole article before posting!
I was voter #1 in my precinct, 90th and Menard, and they were screwed up from the start. I wanted to use the touch screen and they couldn't get my card to work for it. I stood there for about 10 minutes while the lady jacked around, saying to here over and over, "Well, then, just give me a paper ballot."
Finally, she got the message and I waited another 10 minutes while they were trying to find the paper ballots. Then I voted and, being way late for work, I had to argue with them to get a receipt.
Screwed up, big time.
that's St. Gerald's isn't it? I grew up in the same parish.
Yep - I didn't grow up here but have lived in St. Gerald's parish for 23 years now.
I wish I could say that I had such an easy time voting on the new computer based ballots.
Allthough I live in downstate Illinois, the very first thing I was confronted with was choosing the language I wished to vote in. This sickened me so much that I almost walked away as a disenfranchised voter right then and there! IMHO if you cannot read English then you have no business voting to begin with..but anyway on with the meat of what happened to me yesterday.
I waited less than a minute in line and when it was my turn I requested a pub ballot and was given a booklet containing a ballot and a card that resembled an ATM card.
I walked over to the voting machines and followed the directions I have been given. Then it was time to vote. Seems good right?
Well, guess what, the first vote to cast that came up was for governor. Still sounds proper right? Till I read the name that is. It was Rod Blogajevich!!!!! The one person I want to see voted out in the coming general election is the name I see! Talk about disenfranchised!
I scrolled thru several pages trying to figure out was going on and I came to the conclusion that I had been given a Democratic ballot instead of a Pub ballot.
I decided to speak up and get this dealt with. I must give credit to the staff that was working the polling place. They really tried to figure out the best way forward.
They decided to spoil my original ballot and create a new one for me to start over. I suppose that is the best thing to do but I cannot help but to think that my vote is somehow tarnished...if it really gets counted at all.
I also found myself wondering how many folks this happens to that do not realize they have the wrong ballot. I am left feeling like this is how the Dems seek to keep control over Illinois...you know the other Illinois that exists outside Chicagoland area.
The polling place staffmember that helped me thru the difficulty told me that when they enter which ballot you are to receive the DEM and the PUB selections are right next to each other and that is prolly how the mistake happened. Now I don't know about you folks, but to me, that seems like planned mistakes engineered into the system that very easily could have been engineered out of it.
I had high hopes about the new voting machines, but I must say, I am seriously disappointed by what I experienced yesterday.
re: "the only question's which one's the beater thief"
You understand Crook County well. Are you hiding in it somewhere?
You vote with a white marker.
re: "They decided to spoil my original ballot and create a new one for me to start over"
The perfect recipe for fraud. It is the electronic "hanging chad". In the precincts where the machines didn't work, or where the judges didn't know how to work the machines (eg Chicago Public School educated judges) those allegedly "spoiled" ballots can now be the debate over the "intent" of the voter.
Whoever controls those spoiled ballots wins for County Board Pres. Thus, there is a motive in not having the machines work, and in not properly training judges in how to work the machines, and in having a lousy Public School system.
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