Posted on 04/07/2003 10:13:20 AM PDT by dark_lord
Why Democrats got boost from sex offenders By John Patterson Daily Herald State Government Editor Posted April 07, 2003
SPRINGFIELD - A former state worker with Democratic ties at a Joliet treatment center for the state's most dangerous sex offenders registered more than 125 of them to vote last fall.
Voting patterns show the child molesters, rapists and other sexual deviants overwhelmingly supported Democrats. But a spokesman for the state agency responsible for their treatment said the worker was doing her job and nothing improper happened.
Will County records show in the months leading up to the November 2002 elections, 127 of the sex offenders being treated in Joliet were registered to vote by Fran Aden, who worked at the center.
At the same time, campaign finance reports show Aden served as campaign treasurer for Democrat Beth Ann May who ran for Will County clerk against Republican Nancy Schultz Voots.
Voots won, but May carried the precinct where the sex offenders voted. The precinct tends to vote Democrat anyway. Glenn Poshard carried it over Republican George Ryan in the 1998 governor's race. Al Gore also won the precinct over George W. Bush in the 2000 presidential race.
Simple math shows the sex offenders added even more Democratic votes. County election officials said 120 absentee ballots were returned from the sex offenders' center. In the clerk's race, 229 voters were cast in that precinct. So sex offenders made up more than half the vote.
Voots, the Republican, received 42 votes in the precinct. May, the Democrat, received 187.
Similar patterns exist in that precinct in the governor and attorney general races, two of the more closely contested races last fall.
In the governor's race, 237 votes were cast. Republican Jim Ryan received 20 votes. Democrat Rod Blagojevich received 210. The other candidates received seven.
In the attorney general's race, 234 votes were cast. Republican Joseph Birkett received 38 votes. Democrat Lisa Madigan received 171 votes. The Libertarian Party candidate received 25.
Illinois law strips prison inmates of their voting rights. Because these sex offenders are no longer serving criminal sentences, they regained the right to vote.
Aden retired last year. Directory assistance had no listing and she could not be reached for comment. When asked her thoughts on the situation, May said she had none and would not comment further on the record.
A spokesman for the Department of Human Services, the agency running the center, said nothing sinister occurred.
"One thing has nothing to do with the other," department spokesman Reginald Marsh said, referring to Aden's political affiliation and the registration effort. He said a few offenders inquired about voting. The agency checked the law and determined they could. Aden handled registration.
"We don't allow any campaigning inside a state-operated center. It's against the law," Marsh said. "Our main concern was that we gave them their constitutional right to vote if they chose to do so."
However, sex offenders' interest in voting has since dwindled. Not one asked for a ballot for the April 1 local elections, Will County election officials said.
Marsh reasoned that governor elections always draw more attention.
But one Will County lawmaker said the situation is more than just happenstance.
"Without pointing the finger of blame, it does appear to be more than a coincidence that there would be a very large number of absentee ballots requested from the person who was a campaign aide and worker for a candidate and then after that person was defeated there's no longer any interest in state or local government being demonstrated by the same people," said state Sen. Edward Petka, a Plainfield Republican. "I think those facts actually speak for themselves."
That sex offenders voted against Jim Ryan is not surprising. He championed the 1998 state law responsible for them being detained for treatment, perhaps for life, rather than freed.
Ryan declined comment.
Each of these sex offenders was sent to prison. But before their sentences ended, prosecutors went to court and argued they suffer mental defects and will strike again. Once deemed sexually dangerous, the inmates went to a secure treatment facility until they can prove they are not a threat.
The state's lone treatment center is a former prison building in Joliet. Another spokesman for the Department of Human Services said 189 offenders receive treatment there.
Yes. Maybe Marc Racicot will get right on that. :-P
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