Politics & Government

What Happened at Sward School?

Cook County Clerk's office says up to 12 voters who live in the 3rd District may have voted in the wrong race last Tuesday.

Did ballot foul-ups in the 35th precinct possibly cost one of the candidates the still-too-close-to-call 3rd District village trustee race?

separate longtime Oak Lawn Village Board Trustee Bob Streit and write-in candidate Dan Sodaro, who got the ballot amid allegations of irregularities with his nominating petitions, 735-730.

As voters trickled into polling places across the village last Tuesday, candidates stood outside polling places, voicing concern about the miniscule 16 percent voter turnout.

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The first sign that something was amiss at Sward Elementary School, the polling place for the 35th precinct that splits down the middle of the 3rd and 5th municipal districts, was logged in at the Cook County Clerk’s office at 10:56 a.m.

Voters who lived on West and East Harnew Road in the 3rd District were instead given ballots for the 5th District trustee race, where incumbent Carol Quinlan was facing off against challenger Pete Quattrocchi.

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According to Cook County Clerk David Orr’s office, there were 56 ballots listing the wrong district, a problem that was remedied by the county sending a corrected list of 3rd District voters to Sward so that election workers could start giving out the correct ballot.

“The maximum number of people who may have participated and been given the wrong ballot was 12 people,” said Courtney Greve, spokeswoman for the county clerk’s office.

Unfortunately, Greve said, after the ballots were cast there was nothing the county could do. There was no way residents who may have voted in the wrong race could have been notified to come back and recast their votes.

Greve said it was the village clerk’s responsibility to sign off on the accuracy of the street range index that lists addresses within each municipal district so that voters are given the correct ballot according to their address.

“(Oak Lawn) did certify this for us,” Greve said.

A similar problem occurred in Crestwood last Tuesday, where a much smaller group of voters from a new subdivision were given the wrong ballots.

“It was new construction,” Greve said. “The local clerk didn’t change it from unincorporated to incorporated.”

Oak Lawn Village Clerk Jane Quinlan said she was unaware of the problem at Sward School until Wednesday, when she read a story by Phil Kadner in the SouthtownStar and began reading the conspiracy theories spiraling out of control on Oak Lawn Patch.

“Our (district) boundaries haven’t changed in 10 years,” a furious Quinlan said. “I checked my maps 100 times and they’re perfect.”

Quinlan also said the county clerk changed the precinct boundaries in 2009, when the 74th precinct was eliminated and the 35th precinct expanded to include parts of the 3rd and 5th districts.

“That’s the county’s doing, not the village’s,” Quinlan said. “The county notifies the residents of their polling place, not the village.”

Quinlan also said the county did not notify her on Tuesday of problems at Sward School. She was busy putting out another fire at the Oak View Center polling place, another split precinct, where some voters in the 6th District where there was no trustee race were given ballots for the 5th District.

“These problems didn’t occur except in split precincts,” Quinlan said. “I’m going to strongly recommend that the county reject split precincts.”

The county clerk determines precinct boundaries for administering elections. Municipal clerks provided a hard copy of the street range index, listing addresses within each precinct, and a CD copy.

Oak Lawn uses a sophisticated geographic information system (GIS) that merges cartography with statistical analysis to map and manage its public utilities, natural resources, fire and police jurisdictions—even district maps and address ranges for the purpose of elections.

“The county never asked us what the district boundaries were,” Quinlan said. “We were asked to check the street index. I can’t do any more on my part.”

On Jan. 10, the Cook County Clerk’s director of elections send a form letter to the county’s municipal clerks, asking clerks to check the “enclosed list or CD of street range addresses” in their respective jurisdictions for the upcoming April 5 election.

Also included was a map of Oak Lawn's precinct boundaries.

Quinlan signed off on the street range addresses on Jan. 21—well before the Jan. 28 deadline—indicating that “I have reviewed and approve of precincts/districts” for the Village of Oak Lawn.

The day after the election, when problems at the Sward School polling place came to light, Quinlan said she and the village’s GIS coordinator went through the CD provided by the county and manually checked the problem precincts—the 35th precinct at Sward, and the 100th precinct at Oak View Center.

“We went through them with (the GIS coordinator) sitting there and double-checking all the address ranges against the GIS,” Quinlan said. “We looked at the 74th precinct that changed into the 35th. Everything on Harnew was in the 35th precinct, but the county failed to realize that it was a split precinct and therein the problem lies.”

Greve said it is still the village clerk's responsibility to tell the county the boundaries of the political ward or district.

“That is their responsibility,” Greve said. “We need the local clerks to inform us of where their local boundaries lie. By signing off on the street file, that is what she did.”

Meanwhile, the county clerk is slated to canvass electronic and paper write-in ballots in the 3rd District race this Wednesday. The candidates, Streit and Sodaro, are said to be lawyering up for a possible discovery recount. Fasten your seatbelts, because it’s going to be a bumpy ride.


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