Sins of Commission

Your LakeCountyEye has learned that a general election was held this week. And while that election produced its share of winners and losers, in Lake County one big loser stands head and shoulders above all the rest:

The Lake County Election Commission

The Lake County Election Commission was originally convened as an accountable body to ensure that elections in Lake County would be conducted with competence and in a non-partisan fashion. But that was back in the day. If this week's election is any indication, the Lake County Election Commission has morphed into a horribly slipshod operation, accountable to no one and hellbent on pursuing it's own questionable agenda. The Daily Herald reports that ...

Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan has won a court order to let currently unregistered voters keep casting ballots after polls close at 7 p.m. because sites for same-day voter registration in Lake County didn't open until 10 a.m. Madigan says Lake County Clerk Willard Helander is "illegally interpreting" election laws. People who vote the same day they register cast provisional ballots that will be counted later if officials verify the voter is eligible. Earlier, Madigan said Helander was making people vote a provisional ballot if they'd previously requested one by mail but hadn't sent it in. Voters, Madigan said, should be allowed to vote a standard ballot if they bring in the one they got in the mail. Madigan said Helander was requiring them to have the envelope with their name on it in addition to the blank ballot in order to vote in person. A county judge ruled this afternoon that a voter only needs to bring the ballot. "These illegal practices risk disenfranchising voters throughout the county," Madigan said in a statement.
Lake County polls open until 9 for same-day registration

It is clear that the one thing the Lake County Election Commission brings to the table is unaccountability, malfeasance and partisan rancor.

When the Lake County Election Commission was first instituted, your LakeCountyEye knew this was a bureaucratic frankenstein that needed to be stopped -- by legal action if necessary. Well, the chickens have finally come home to roost.

Change is now in the air. Operatives are urged to join your LakeCountyEye in a simple chant. Say it proud and say it loud enough that they can hear it all the way to Waukegan:

Mr Lake County Board, tear down this Lake County Election Commission!