Editorial: Election board right to restrict its attorneys' political activities

With the election behind us, talk of a "rigged" voting system has faded into the realm of presidential campaign hyperbole. But there's a reason the accusation attracted attention. Almost no function is more fundamental to the viability of our democracy than an incorruptible election process.

So, if there is any question surrounding the DuPage County Election Commission's decision last week to restrict political activities of its attorneys, it can only be, "What took so long?"

No one has accused the commission or its attorneys of improper activity, but in an increasingly acidic campaign environment, the eventual likelihood of such claims seems only a matter of time. The public got a glimpse during the March primary of the potential problems lurking for the commission. When Moon Khan, a Democratic write-in candidate for DuPage County recorder, seemed to fall about 150 votes short of the 844 he needed to secure a place on the November ballot, he had to go to court to win the right to challenge incumbent Republican Fred Bucholz.

The law firm representing the election commission had donated $500 to Bucholz' campaign just months earlier, and had donated $6,300 to him since 2003. Asked by the commission to examine the legality of that, a DuPage County assistant state's attorney said the situation required no further action. Indeed, the commission's law firm - Bond, Dickson & Associates of Wheaton - has donated tens of thousands of dollars to Republican candidates for DuPage County offices over the years.

Does a law firm have the right to support any candidate it wants? Of course. But what are voters left to think when that law firm also represents the agency that has oversight over the rules by which all candidates must play?

Khan certainly had just cause to wonder why he had to wait five weeks and spend thousands of dollars on attorneys fees to challenge an outcome in which 3,300 write-in votes seemed to go to no candidate. What kind of advice the commission was getting from its attorneys should never have been a factor in the equation. Now, it won't have to be in any future such controversies.

The potential for a conflict of interest is certainly different from the existence of one, and it well may be that the political activities of agencies under contract to the DuPage County Election Commission have never risen to a level worthy of censure. But, the integrity of any government agency demands scrupulous protection. When the agency is responsible for the honest, accurate and timely processing of votes - especially an elections board like DuPage's whose sole reason for being is to separate it from the activities of everyday politics - any potential for inappropriate partisan influences must be eliminated.

It would be nice if it hadn't taken a vote dispute to get the attention of the DuPage commission. Thankfully, something did and commissioners responded appropriately.