The Lake County Election Commission is one step closer to approving the November 8 general election. Officials have made the final decision on whether to tally the more than 350 outstanding provisional and absentee ballots.
Democratic Election Commission Michelle Faziman said 318 absentee ballots were questioned during the election because of signature discrepancies. Voters who have submitted absentee ballots or questioned provisional ballots will be notified by the Board of Elections by Wednesday to submit an affidavit confirming their identity.
The Electoral Commission did not receive the required affidavits for 181 of those ballots, Faziman said, so they were disqualified or rejected.
Faziman and Election Commission Republican Deputy Director Leanne Ungerman disagreed on how the signatures of the remaining 137 votes should be verified. Faziman said his affidavit and form were sufficient. Ungerman said authorities would have to pull out each voter’s information as an extra step to verify that voters are who they say they are.
Democratic Election Commission Chairman Kevin Smith said, in his opinion, requiring two verification methods for signatures is sufficient and compliant with the law. As an additional backup, he said signatures were verified when absentee ballots were requested.
“I think the systems that have been set up are working and the staff are doing a great job,” Smith said.
Republican Rep. John Reed said that because someone must apply for an absentee ballot, collect the ballot from that person’s mail, turn in the ballot, and intercept and transmit the affidavit, said it would be difficult to impersonate voters.
The Board agreed to elicit additional information on votes that the bipartisan team under review could not agree with. Board members requested detailed information on the 27 votes.
Affidavits were received for 137 absentee ballots. Board members and staff were divided into teams of one Republican and one Democrat to examine the signatures. Board members motioned to overrule his three votes.
Also, the provisional vote in the general election was 63 votes. 40 of these ballots were due to voters voting in the wrong constituency or county, registering too late, being disenfranchised and not re-registering to vote when their imprisonment ended, and countless others. was rejected for the reason
Faziman said whether absentee ballots were counted or denied would not affect the final results of either race on November 8.
cnapoleon@chicagoribune.com
