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 […]
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 […]
By: Diane Benjamin This morning Connie Beard, McLean County GOP chair, held a press conference. (Note: the GOP is led by a woman! Democrats aren’t) The purpose was to touch on three topics: 1) Referendums The GOP has placed three on the ballot. The first two will only be on the County ballots. These two […]
By: Diane Benjamin The actual election is November 6th, but thanks to the Illinois progressives, voting starts September 27th. Yep, some people can’t get to the polls without over a month of voting. The purpose of early voting is to make sure people vote before any news comes out that might change their mind. Votes […]
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 […]
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 […]
I was just informed the petition challenge failed! In November citizens of Bloomington can abolish ONE unit of government! Many more to go.
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
By: Diane Benjamin Nikita Richards wants to be the next McLean County Clerk. She has a problem with facts however. See this post from her Facebook page and try to spot the problem: Spot it yet? Should I wait? waiting . . . waiting . . . Nothing? She claims she met a guy in […]
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 […]
By: Diane Benjamin The State of Illinois has way too many units of government now. Corruption is rampant because there aren’t enough watchdogs to watch every one of them. (Hopefully news soon about another huge case) Media decided it wasn’t their job either. The LAST thing McLean County needs is a separate Election office created […]
By: Diane Benjamin I’m only writing because I received a ruling from the Attorney General yesterday regarding the Bloomington Election Commission’s violation of the Open Meetings Act. It still stands that I am not going to work for mostly free. If everything I have exposed the last five years isn’t worth $5 or $10 a […]
By: Diane Benjamin A few weeks ago I wrote about an Open Meeting Act violation Lisa Madigan’s Public Access office was asked to review. It was filed in 2014 against the Bloomington Election Commission and evidently lost because no ruling was made until I asked for the resolution. First they claimed the number I provided […]
By: Diane Benjamin From WJBC website: Article and News Reports Tari submitted 785 signatures, the election commission found 581 valid. Not only did Tari Renner turn in over 200 fraudulent signatures, WJBC choose not to report that! See below. The reporter ignored the conclusions reached by the Bloomington Election Commission. Isn’t the conclusion the most […]
By: Diane Benjamin Back in 2014 one of the guys that filed challenges to petitions for candidates in Bloomington knew the Bloomington Election Commission wasn’t following the law as required by the Open Meetings Act. Bruce Meeks filed a Request for Review with Lisa Madigan’s Public Access Office. In February 2014 the Attorney General decided […]
By: Diane Benjamin Yesterday a hearing was held on Kevin Gerrard’s challenge to Tari Renner’s petitions. WJBC has a report on their website: HERE As usual, they left out some facts. The email below was sent to the writer last night by Kevin Gerrard: . Eric, It always amazes me that you and other reporters […]
This video should be done processing around 2:15. See this story for what the video is: https://blnnews.com/2016/12/09/3-of-4-hearings-canceled/
By: Diane Benjamin I attended the 9:00am hearing this morning on the challenge of Bruce Meeks to the petitions filed by Tari Renner. As I reported earlier (HERE), Meeks was incorrectly served for his 4 hearings today. This appears to be the fault of the Sheriff’s Department. Paul Shannon reported BEC gave them 4 packets […]
December 9, 2016 These hearing are scheduled for today: Bruce Meeks objections to Tari Renner petitions – 9:00 am Bruce Meeks objections to Diana Hauman petitions – 10:00 Bruce Meeks objections to Joni Painter petitions – 11:00 Bruce Meeks objections to J Balmer petitions – 12:00 Bruce was served the wrong documents for the Renner, […]
By: Diane Benjamin A reader sent an email to Paul Shannon at the Bloomington Election Commission detailing Bloomington’s Public Comment policy. He asked Paul why the Election Commission doesn’t have the same policy. This was Shannon’s reply: We are not funded through the city of Bloomington, but operate from funding with an intergovernmental agreement between […]
By: Diane Benjamin The integrity of elections matter. The reason for filing petitions to run for public office is to show support from voters. If any part of the petitions are falsified, signed by citizens not registered to vote, or not properly notarized the election becomes a joke. The Bloomington Election Commission is required to […]
Update: The challenge to Tari Renner’s petitions has been rescheduled for 2:30 Friday. Hopefully, this meeting will be posted in their office by 2:30 today. Thanks everybody who called or emailed. __________________________________________ I sent the email below to the Bloomington Election Commission this morning. Their office phone number is: 309-888-5136, demand this meeting be canceled […]
December 7, 2016 BLOOMINGTON, IL. (ECWd) – We have already pointed out two recent examples of the Bloomington Election Commission violating the Open Meetings Act, and have also found another one – from 2014. The Commission admitted in a letter to the Attorney General’s office that it had violated the Open Meetings Act in February 2014 by […]
December 6, 2016 BLOOMINGTON, IL. (ECWd) – In a day when adherence to the law is a revolutionary act, this one drives that message home. An objection was made to the nomination petitions for Bloomington’s Mayor, Tari Renner – and he accused those wanting the law followed of being “fringe right-wing” people who are “trying […]
By: Diane Benjamin Below is the video shot by John Kraft of Edgar County Watchdogs at the meeting to hear the protest to Renner’s petitions. John kept the video running after the meeting was recessed. At 6:48 Jason Chambers, State’s Attorney, announced he was not going to intervene because his office would be responsible for […]
By: Diane Benjamin Below is the video from the beginning of the meeting – up until when the police were called. Almost everything you need to know about what happened this morning at the Bloomington Election Commission hearing is in this video. I have more video I may post later. The Edgar County Watchdogs also […]
By: Diane Benjamin Before the hearing this morning at the Bloomington Election Commission started, Kirk Allen of Edgar County Watchdogs informed the Commission that the meeting was illegal because it violated the Open Meetings Act. The meeting time was not posted on the BEC website and no agenda was posted. The agenda was important because […]
By: Diane Benjamin A reader has done an extensive investigative look at the petitions Tari Renner filed with the Bloomington Election Commission. They are riddled with addresses that look like the same person completed the address part. He thinks it is worth his time to compare the signatures with the ones BEC has on file […]
