Too good not to post

By: Diane Benjamin Kelby Cumpston does a good job recapping Bloomington’s agenda on Facebook before meetings. I like reading his views since they can be insightful. I have no idea why Greg Koos made the comment below because the Bloomington Election Commission isn’t on the Agenda. Does Greg know BEC couldn’t tell candidates how many […]

Grossinger Motors Arena isn’t and more

By: Diane Benjamin Budget book 2 – PDF page 132 https://www.bloomingtonil.gov/home/showpublisheddocument/29127 The paragraph below sure sounds like the City let Grossinger Motors off the hook for naming rights long before the contract was over last summer. Grossinger is still on the building anyway. The City still refers to it at Grossinger anyway. The EXCESS reserves […]

More reason to abolish BEC

By: Diane Benjamin The Bloomington Election Commission has a long history of failing at their one job: Elections. Just in November they couldn’t tell candidates for Bloomington Council how many signatures they needed on petitions because of redistricting. In 2022 BEC requested and increase to their budget of $550,000. BEC has had a hard time […]

Fly on the wall: BEC

I heard the Bloomington Election Commission can’t tell candidates in revised wards how many signatures they need to run! I also hear candidates are told to consult a lawyer – sure, for a job that pays $2,300 a year. Brilliant. (You have ONE job) I wonder if they know the law?  (10 ILCS 5/29-4) (from Ch. […]

Try again to abolish BEC

By: Diane Benjamin Only slightly over 60% of registered voters in McLean County bothered to vote. (35,980 out of 59,448) Evidently 40 year high inflation and Pritzker tax increases weren’t enough pain for the other 40% I can’t tell you how many registered voters in Bloomington bothered to show up. Not only did it take […]

Early Voting Starts today

By: Diane Benjamin Voting 6 weeks before the actual election date is merely a ploy to bank votes from uniformed voters. Do not vote now, the ballots aren’t even available yet to preview before you vote. The ballots were likely delayed by petition challenges. Only those who want to be uniformed vote before campaigning even […]

Bloomington: Questions that won’t be asked tonight

By: Diane Benjamin Bloomington could have a short meeting tonight: http://bloomingtonil.iqm2.com/Citizens/FileOpen.aspx?Type=1&ID=1163&Inline=True Some highlights: Is anyone going to ask why businesses keep leaving downtown for the East side? Is anyone going to admit the City Core is Veterans Parkway not downtown? Sick Leave Buy Back is still being paid, it just can’t be used to spike […]

Part 3 Bloomington-Is BEC screwing up elections?

By: Diane Benjamin A Facebook friend asked why I didn’t include this in previous stories. Since I still don’t understand the ramifications of what attorney Jeff Jurgens stated Monday night, this just gives me another reason to say the Bloomington Election Commission needs abolished. The City is changing Ward maps to equalize population in the […]

Bloomington pushed BEC out of the Government Center

By: Diane Benjamin The Bloomington Election Commission got their space in the Government Center downgraded when Bloomington offices moved in. Now they got pushed out so Bloomington’s Legal Department can move in. BEC (which shouldn’t exist because it duplicates the services of the County Clerk) is moving to the building next door: https://www.instantstreetview.com/@40.479618,-88.993312,178h,-2.59p,0z,wpb1CabIaO1Ad8groyQ-XQ The address […]

BEC’s New Director

By: Diane Benjamin It took a long time for the Bloomington Election Commission to name a new Executive Director, the last one quit in May. I’d still like to know why Tim Mitchell quit suddenly and why it took so long to replace him. Did they have trouble finding a qualified applicant? The new Executive […]

Bloomington bills approved tonight

By: Diane Benjamin Bills and Payroll: https://www.cityblm.org/home/showpublisheddocument/26488/637588526176300000 Wasn’t Sick Leave Buy Back abolished? Buy local? Not when Amazon can deliver office and cleaning supplies with a mouse click. This is what the City spent in one month: Even administration participated: Remember when the Coliseum was sold as it would pay for itself? https://blnnews.com/2017/01/28/coliseum-who-to-blame/ Hint: It […]

BEC needs abolished now

By: Diane Benjamin The Bloomington Election Commission need to be abolished now. The Executive Director Tim Mitchell is no longer there – effective today. From all appearances he did not give any notice. An employee said by phone Tim chose to work outside the office, whatever that means. I do know the County is moving […]

UPDATE: Large turnout for Ward 7 primary! 301 people

If you love Jenn Carrillo’s version of governing, you will love Kelby: By: Diane Benjamin I wonder how the poll workers kept up with so many voters exercising their constitutional right to pick their representatives: Keep doing this voters and somebody is going to propose abolishing elections because they are just too expensive and people […]

What the election said

By: Diane Benjamin Most pollsters have no credibility. The one who got 2016 right was https://www.thetrafalgargroup.org/ Trafalar predicted a Trump win in 2020. In the future, pollsters need to be marginalized. They intentionally over-sample those who produce the results they want to see. Media has no credibility. The majority of the media misled the public […]

Sick Leave Buy Back isn’t gone!

By: Diane Benjamin https://www.cityblm.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=25362 I thought there was a deadline for City of Bloomington employees to retire if they wanted to spike their pensions, but evidently it’s still happening: These two employees will receive much higher pension benefits merely because nobody at the City stopped them. This fleece has cost Bloomington taxpayers MILLIONS of dollars […]

Since Bloomington staff won’t just answer a simple question . . .

By: Diane Benjamin It was pretty easy to determine the COUNTY was paying for the Bloomington Election Commission for this story: https://blnnews.com/2020/10/08/you-cant-make-this-stuff-up-bloomington-election-commission/ I emailed the Bloomington Finance Director just to verify and didn’t receive a response until yesterday: That is 7 days after I wrote the story! This is the document they sent, you have […]

How BEC is fixing their error

By: Diane Benjamin Remember the ballot error that caused the Bloomington Election Commission to shut down early voting? https://blnnews.com/2020/10/01/early-voting-suspended-in-bloomington/ I received questions from people who had early voted with the ballot that left off retaining two judges. Some were worried their vote would be invalidated. I emailed BEC to see what the plan is. This […]

You can’t make this stuff up: Bloomington Election Commission

By: Diane Benjamin Did you notice the Democrats weren’t crying “Voting Suppression” when BEC shut down early voting for days to fix their ballot problem? What would they have said about Republican Kathy Michael if the County would have shut down early voting? Did you also notice there is no one voters can hold accountable […]

Update: Nailed it! Early voting suspended in Bloomington

By: Diane Benjamin I think that boat has sailed BEC. If you have a problem with your ballots everybody who has already voted has a problem. How many ballots have you mailed? The specimen ballot on the BEC website does have a problem – two questions are missing: https://www.becvote.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/General-Election-1120.pdf Anyone who has already voted did […]

BEC’s version of what happened with the bounced checks

By:  Diane Benjamin The below was sent to the election judges yesterday by the Bloomington Election Commission.  See the original story:  https://blnnews.com/2020/04/07/you-should-have-abolished-the-bloomington-election-commission/ Note how nothing is ever government’s fault, in this case it’s the bank’s fault.  Yes folks, banks accidentally bounce checks all the time. . . . . .  

Update: You should have abolished the Bloomington Election Commission!

The original Facebook post below might be slightly wrong.  It is looking more like BEC wrote checks on an account they forgot to transfer money to before sending them out.  People who call are being told to re-submit their checks.  Proof of fees incurred has to be submitted to be reimbursed. By:  Diane Benjamin Having […]

Bloomington’s Monday Payments

By:  Diane Benjamin A few of them that stood out: https://www.cityblm.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=23453 Bloomington taxpayers:  If you had voted to abolish the Bloomington Election Commission you wouldn’t be paying this now: Community Relations?  Is the tweet from the same Candacy Taylor? Payment #3 for improvements to the Coliseum.  How many in total? How many more years does […]

Another reason to vote YES to abolish BEC

By:  Diane Benjamin This question will be on the ballot for Bloomington voters only: Voting YES abolishes the Bloomington Election Commission and puts elections in the hands of the ELECTED County Clerk. Here’s why voting YES is important: Peoria County is one of the few with an Election Commission.  That Election Commission screwed up the […]

Bloomington: VOTE YES

By:  Diane Benjamin The wording is what is legally required.  If you want to save money by not having two separate offices conduct elections, you must vote YES to abolish the Bloomington Election Commission.  Since all BEC does is elections, what do they do when there aren’t any? Republicans and Libertarians think voters should have […]

Pantagraph bias

By:  Diane Benjamin Sometimes the biased reporting of the Pantagraph is clear. Gee, they left one word out of the following:    https://www.pantagraph.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/mcbride-to-run-again-for-normal-council/article_2343d2f9-03af-5b94-833c-eb1310ce6228.html Chissell was just elected in March.  I’m betting she was the only person running, but BECVOTE.org doesn’t have the primary election results posted:     http://www.becvote.org/wordpress/electiondatesandoffices/pastresults/ Keep that in mind when Democrats say the […]

No Voter Suppression at ISU

By:  Diane Benjamin A couple of days ago a comment was made on Facebook saying Republicans were trying to suppress the vote at ISU, and that’s why kids had to stand in long lines. The person who made that comment must have not realized the election was a primary.  Suppressing democrat votes does nothing to […]

Another reason to end BEC

By:  Diane Benjamin I find it hilarious that Democrat Tari Renner threw and continues to be upset that his petitions were challenged.  Tari thinks he should not have been challenged, even though 204 signatures were found to be fraudulent. Meanwhile another Democrat, Board Chair of the Bloomington Election Commission, is challenging the petitions for a […]

Democrats want to block common sense

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 […]

Bloomington Council for Monday

By:  Diane Benjamin Bills and Payroll:   http://www.cityblm.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=18588 Expenses that can be avoided by eliminating the Bloomington Election Commission: Renner feeding himself in MARCH:   Remember when America was a melting pot?  People didn’t come here to be different, they came to be Americans.  Those days are long gone in favor of “diversity”: Even Americans don’t want […]

Democrats: Kathy Michael not invited

By:  Diane Benjamin The local Democrats are against abolishing the Bloomington Election Commission.  Instead of lessening the tax burden by eliminating one of the way too many government agencies in Illinois, they would rather create an unaccountable new one to oversee elections.  The County Clerk is an elected position, Democrats want to create a commission […]

Non-partisan doesn’t exist Tari!

By:  Diane Benjamin Tari Renner was on WJBC this morning.  He stated elections should be taken away from the County Clerk’s office and put in the hands of a non-partisan election commission. City elections are supposedly non-partisan.  What were the first words uttered by Tari Renner when he was first elected? He announced is was […]

GOP: Eliminate the Bloomington Election Commission

By:  Diane Benjamin The GOP met tonight to hear presentations from Bloomington Election Commission head Paul Shannon and County Clerk Kathy Michael. The purpose was to determine if the GOP should support a referendum to combine BEC with the County Clerk’s office. After the presentations, the precinct committeemen voted unanimously to support the referendum.  I […]