State tells DuPage election board to dispose of ballots properly

SPRINGFIELD - The Illinois General Assembly has passed legislation saying the DuPage County Election Commission must follow state law like all other counties when discarding election ballots.

The DuPage County Election Commission has been destroying ballots and other election material without permission. Watchdog groups have complained the commission may have dumped election material before they were supposed to.

"Had the election commission followed the law, we'd know what has been destroyed and when it was destroyed," said Jean Kaczmarek, co-founder of the DuPage chapter of the Illinois Ballot Integrity Project. "Because they were not in compliance, we have no idea."

In 2007, Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan released an opinion saying DuPage must comply. DuPage County State's Attorney Joe Birkett, citing a local ruling on the matter, maintained the county did not have to follow the state's rules.

State Rep. Paul Froehlich, a Schaumburg Democrat, drafted legislation clarifying that the state's election code applies to every county in Illinois.

The new legislation requires all the state's election agencies to seek written approval from the Illinois Local Records Commission before disposing of election materials.

"DuPage claimed they were exempt from Lisa Madigan's opinion," Froehlich said. "This settles the disagreement and clarifies the law."

Birkett said Froehlich's bill clarifies the election law and benefits all of the state's election agencies.

"I'm not offended at all by a law that appears to be targeting one body when the legislation is necessary to correct an inconsistency," Birkett said.

The legislation has passed both the Illinois House and Senate and is awaiting the governor's approval.

"One-fifth of my district is in DuPage County," Froehlich said. "I am the only House Democrat representing DuPage County, which may be why it came to me."

Election commission officials said they were working from a legal opinion that stated they were following state law.

The opinion declared that state law mandates when election material should be destroyed.

Because they were destroying the materials when they were supposed to, the commission officials didn't believe it was necessary to seek permission.

Birkett refused to prosecute them because he said they were following the legal opinion and "working in good faith."

DuPage Election Commission Executive Director Robert Saar said he doesn't see the legislation as punitive.

"We don't consider it a slap at the election commission at all," he said. "It's a clarification that I don't feel was directed at DuPage, though some other people might want to represent it that way."

Since Madigan's ruling, the election commission has not disposed of any election material, and that's why there is no record of the commission seeking permission to get rid of any material, said commission spokesman Dan Curry, a political consultant who has worked on Birkett's campaigns in the past as well. He called Kaczmarek's group "highly partisan" and their complaints about the commission "conspiratorial" and "erroneous."

"This is noncontroversial legislation to settle a nonissue," he said. "We're talking about records that have always been kept well past the times that elections could be legally challenged."

Kaczmarek said she's not surprised to hear the election commission "spin" Froehlich's bill as a positive thing.

"But if Bob Saar was so eager for a clarification why didn't he seek one himself?" She asked. "We didn't see any other bills floating around Springfield."