By: Diane Benjamin
Illinois has far more units of government than any other state. Your taxes are higher because of it!
In 2014 the Bloomington Election commission violated the Open Meetings Act, the Attorney General didn’t tell them until 2016: AG 12/12/2016 letter
This article contains rulings of two more Open Meetings Act violations in 2016: http://edgarcountywatchdogs.com/2017/04/ag-bloomington-election-commission-violated-the-law-twice/
The Bloomington Election Commission is incompetent when laws have to be followed. Do they really follow the rules when counting ballots? We don’t know because they are appointed, not elected. It is much more difficult to hold appointees accountable because you can’t un-elect them!
The local Democrats want to appoint a Commission for the entire County. Instead of getting rid of administrators and a separate office with all the related expenses, they want to grow it.
Democrats need to answer a simple question: If McLean County did have an Election Commission who would appoint these supposed non-partisan commissioners?
They won’t be elected by you, so somebody has to decide who is in charge. Likely the County Board, Bloomington, and Normal would each appoint somebody.
The County is dominated by Republicans.
Bloomington is dominated by Democrats.
Normal is dominated by Democrats.
Thinking . . . thinking . . . thinking . . . .
Isn’t it obvious why Democrats want to appoint rather than save taxpayers money?
The Democrats are challenging the 1380 petition signatures the GOP and Libertarians collected to put a referendum on the November ballot. The referendum would abolish the Bloomington Election Commission and put all elections in the County Clerk’s office like most other Illinois counties.
The Democrats are trying to take away the rights of Bloomington residents to make that decision.
Now, keep in mind that Democrats want a County-wide election commission, in fact they would expand the duties of the Bloomington Election Commission. I wonder how they will explain this WGLT article: http://www.wglt.org/post/tight-timeframe-resolve-dispute-over-election-referendum-signatures
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Um, surprise surprise! One of the Commissioners of this non-partisan Board is identified in the media as a Democrat!
I’m glad they are asking a court to decide instead of hearing the challenge themselves. So far there is nothing on the court calendar.
The article claims some signatures were printed. That’s pretty funny since Tari Renner (Democrat) was on WJBC this morning saying printing is fine. Tari is still mad about his petition challenge, he once again doesn’t know when to keep his mouth shut.
Putting all elections in the hands of the County Clerk puts elections in the hands of voters. This referendum should be on the November ballot and should be passed by the citizens of Bloomington. It’s ridiculous to fund two separate staffs and send duplicates to conferences. It’s equally ridiculous to think a County Election Commission would be non-partisan.
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Hahahaha. Printing your name on a petition is NOT okay. The BEC ruled all of the printed signatures in case Renner’s petition invalid.
There are at least two issues here— the size of government and elected representation. One has to ask, what are principles in the founding documents of this country?
Having said that, everyone has the right to challenge petitions. With the exception of printing the name, the BEC board members during Renner’s challenge always ruled in favor of the voter on the petition.
If I remember right, this is kind of like stacking the deck, and in the OLD west that had out comes that were USUALLY not good..
I also hear on WGLT that Karen S. wants ANOTHER term. HOW many times can these folks mess up and STILL get re-elected?
With the academic abandonment of cursive, printed names will eventually have to be approved. Whether that time is now is reasonably debatable.
Whatever signatures are non-Bloomingtonians should be thrown out, no question there.
I’d have to see the ‘questionable formatting’ pages. My best guess is they should be fine from a reasonableness perspective, but partisan considerations have thrown out more for less here in the People’s Republic of Illinois.
My first thought was – A bunch of the democrat base can probably just barely PRINT their names, and another portion may have lost all ability to write at all since they can only text and use keyboards, many can barely speak or talk on a phone now, just text and use snapchat and the like.
The BEC looks at the voter registration card to match the signature. If voter signs the card in cursive, the petition must be signed in the same fashion. The address is also checked against the signatures. The signatures do not need to be legible.
For hating the local media, you sure do quote WGLT a lot. I think they’re pretty good. Do you like them or not? Should I keep them as part of my media diet in central Illinois or not? Curious what you think…Thanks!
See response to your previous comment
So based on that response, on another of your posts, you think they’re biased, but continue to cite them. That doesn’t make sense to me.
Cite and correct.
Keep your friends close, keep your enemies……WHAT’S so hard to understand there?
Does WGLT EVER do a story that ISN’T slanted so far left that it makes the leaning tower of Pisa look level?
one reporter – occasionally.