Aurora Election Commission survives threat to disband
The Aurora Election Commission should survive the November election with no challenges to its existence, despite discussion this spring of a possible petition drive to disband the 78-year-old independent election body.
To ask voters on Nov. 6 if the commission should be disbanded, a petition with 1,000 signatures would have had to been filed by this past Monday in Kane County Circuit Court. But no one filed such a petition, the Kane County Circuit Clerk’s office confirmed Wednesday.
Aurora officials including Alderman Lynda Elmore, who had been leading a push to eliminate the commission, say they dropped plans for a petition drive because signatures of DuPage County voters could not be included in the 1,000 needed to get the issue on the ballot.
DuPage signatures could not count because those voters are not served by the Aurora Election Commission; their votes are counted by the DuPage County Election Commission.
“The fact that we have no voice in it is unbelievable,” said Elmore, who represents mainly DuPage County residents.
Aurora Mayor Tom Weisner’s office had indicated an interest this spring in exploring a “cheaper alternative to providing election services.”
The city is responsible for covering the election commission’s operating costs, which this year were expected to total more than $500,000, although it has no power to approve or deny the expenses. That power lies with the chief judge of the 16th Judicial Circuit.
The election commission’s costs to the city have risen from $345,903 in 2010 and $367,560 in 2011, but its total budget decreased from $1.6 million in 2010 to $842,560 in 2011, according to the chief judge’s office.
Despite the costs to the city, Chief Management Officer Carie Anne Ergo said the mayor’s office did not pursue a petition to disband the commission because constituents of aldermen who were most interested in eliminating it, such as Elmore, could not be included in the process.
The process of disbanding an election commission was made difficult by design of the state statute that allows creation of such commissions, Aurora Election Commission attorney Pat Bond said.
Although she won’t be leading a push for voters to decide the election commission’s future, Elmore said its future still deserves evaluation.
“I still think it should be looked at,” she said.