Aurora election complaint under review

An Aurora lawyer who lost the Feb. 5 primary for a judicial subcircuit seat has received an anonymous letter suggesting more than 1,000 faulty ballots influenced the outcome of the election.

A copy of the letter, postmarked Monday and mailed in an envelope from Aurora's Board of Election Commissioners, has been given to the Kane County state's attorney, who is investigating.

Renee Robinson, a Democrat who lost the party nomination by 205 votes in Aurora, opened the letter Tuesday. She said she was "floored" by the allegations, which appear to be made from a member of the commission.

"We have a duty to make sure the right people are elected into office," Robinson said Friday. "We have a duty to get to the bottom of it."

Carole Holtz, the director of the Aurora election commission, refuted the statements in the letter, which she had not been aware of until Friday. She said state officials conducted a review of her office and found no wrongdoing.

"I don't know where this is coming from. Maybe someone wants another election because they lost," Holtz said, adding, "Someone has it in for this office, or I don't know what."

The two-paragraph letter is addressed to Robinson and says more than 1,000 incorrect ballots were counted and the problems in the primary were more widespread than election officials have let on.

"It may be to your advantage to request a thorough investigation or recount," the letter states. "I hope you will understand why I can not sign this, but I do plan on resigning in the near future."

John Barsanti, the county's state's attorney, said Robinson contacted him Thursday about the letter and faxed a copy.

"We'll take a look and find out what the ramifications are," Barsanti said. "And we'll take a look to see if there's a criminal violation."

Robinson, 52, lost the five-way race by 338 votes from Aurora's 78 precincts and 12 in Kane County to Jim Murphy, Aurora's Township supervisor, according to election results.

The election marked Kane County's first judicial subcircuit race since Illinois lawmakers in 2005 directed the 16th Judicial Circuit to divide into subcircuits with additions in Aurora and Elgin.

The 16th Judicial Circuit includes Kane, Kendall and DeKalb counties. The creation of the subcircuits has been billed as a vehicle to increase the number of minorities on the bench.

Robinson and Aurora attorney Herb Hill were the only black candidates on the Democratic ticket.

In the early hours after the polls opened on Election Day, several voters reported receiving incorrect ballots, a problem which took place at precincts across the state.

"It disenfranchised a lot of people," said Hill, who also lost to Murphy and added he thinks the election should be held again.

Ken Menzel with the Illinois State Board of Elections, said a "brief, informal" inspection of Aurora's election offices was held Thursday, but the results would not be complete until next week.

"It didn't look like anything that was completely out of the ordinary," Menzel said. "The kinds of errors that you saw were normal."

Murphy, 56, faces Republican Fred Morelli Jr., 66, in the November election.

Murphy said he has spoken to Robinson since the election, as well as Aurora election officials, who he maintained took the problems on Feb. 5 seriously.

If the allegations in the letter to Robinson have merit, "then we were all deprived of votes," Murphy said.

Barsanti said it is unclear what prosecutors could do without evidence of a crime, and the opportunity to challenge the votes in court has elapsed.

Robinson said she is not concerned abut the outcome of the primary -- unless evidence of fraud is uncovered -- but turned the matter over to prosecutors to protect the integrity of the election.

"This is by no means sour grapes on my part," she said. "If I had a problem, I would have said something weeks ago."