The Kane County State’s Attorney’s Office visited every precinct and responded to multiple inquiries but found no violations during the April 7 consolidated election.

For each election the office staffs a complaint line for voters and election judges to use if they believe they have experienced or witnessed electioneering or other illegal election-related activity.

The complaint line on April 7 received 21 calls, and assistant state’s attorneys responded to each but found no violations. Most of the complaints proved to be unfounded. Those that were founded were quickly resolved.

In addition, assistant state’s attorneys visited all 228 of the Kane County election precincts that were supervised by the Kane County Elections Department to answer any questions of election judges and to assure that operations were lawful. Of the calls:

• Eight were from Rutland Township regarding a single incident of potential electioneering. No violation was found.
• Seven were from Blackberry Township regarding a candidate who was approaching voters in the vicinity of a polling place. The candidate was found to have been talking to voters outside of the 100-foot limit for legal electioneering.
• Three calls, one each from Batavia, Blackberry and Geneva townships, were regarding potentially unlawful sign placement. Each situation was resolved by removing or relocating signs.
• One complaint was from a voter who was asked for additional identification because of signature inconsistencies. The request is permitted in cases of ambiguity.
• One complaint was about a candidate sticker that was affixed to a judge’s clipboard. The clipboard was moved out of view.
• One complaint was about an inconvenient polling place.

“We anticipated some hot areas because of the closely contested races and the busy slate. But we were pleased that the election was orderly, all concerns were resolved and no violations were found,” Kane County State’s Attorney Joe McMahon said. “Thanks to the election judges, the candidates and the voters for participating in the process and for their work to keep this election fair and organized.”

SOURCE: Kane County State’s Attorney’s Office

Kane County State’s Attorney Joe McMahon