More DuPage candidates raising questions about write-in results

A growing number of candidates in DuPage County are raising questions about whether write-in votes were counted properly during last month's primary election.

On Monday, former state Rep. Randy Ramey told DuPage Election Commission officials that six write-in candidates for Republican precinct committeeman in Wayne Township believe they received enough votes to be elected. But unofficial results indicate they didn't.

In one precinct, for example, 47 Republicans voted for the committeeman position, but the lone candidate - a write-in - only received four votes.

Meanwhile, Ramey said he has received affidavits from several people who say they voted for the write-in candidates.

"They (the candidates) made the effort to get information out to the voters and show that they were write-in candidates," said Ramey, who is a Republican precinct committeeman in Wayne Township.

Ramey says he believes election judges didn't tally all the write-in votes.

"The ballots were not actually hand counted for the write-ins at the polling place," he said.

He asked the commission to do a review of the ballots cast in the six committeeman races.

That request comes just a week after Moon Khan, a Democrat who ran unopposed as a write-in candidate for county recorder in his party's March 15 primary, blamed DuPage's voting machines for costing him thousands of votes.

Khan pursued his write-in campaign seeking to become the Democratic Party's nominee to face Republican Recorder Fred Bucholz in the November general election.

To get the nomination, the Lombard resident needed 844 write-in votes. Election officials said he got just 699, even though more than 4,100 Democrats voted for the recorder's position.

Khan called on the commission to review write-in ballots, especially since it appears the problems he believes his campaign encountered may have also affected other candidates.

"It's a bizarre case," Khan told the commission on Monday. "Please look into this."

Election officials, however, said they don't have the legal authority to do the kind of review Khan and Ramey are requesting.

"For the chain of custody, we do not go in and break the seal on those ballots beyond the reconciliation period after an election," said Joseph Sobecki, assistant executive director of the election commission. "I believe in the past we have received a court order to go into it. But beyond that, I don't know if we have the authority to go into that because we try to keep the sanctity of that polling intact."

Ramey and Khan both said they're planning to seek court orders to get the get the commission to do a recount.