Board of Elections

Elections

Tuesday, Feb. 15, 2022
10:30 a.m. CST

Remote

This is a remote assignment. Tip: Campaign disclosure cases are interesting but don’t feel like you have to capture every detail, as they can get pretty technical but are well-documented in the agenda. Notes on the other portions of the agenda, especially legislative and technology updates, are more helpful because they give us insight into bigger picture policies the board of elections is working on.

The meeting will be held via Zoom: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/89728189409?pwd=SlA1RnpKTjNZdENLZWVaa0NYSlBpdz09

Meeting ID: 897 2818 9409 Passcode: 041212

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Reporting

Edited and summarized by the Chicago - IL Documenters Team

Note-taking by Karmeisha Boyd

Campaign finance disclosure fines, Candidate petition filing, Voter registration rolls

View notes

Live reporting by Will Reynolds

Campaign finance disclosure fines, Candidate petition filing, Voter registration rolls

Will Reynolds @willinois

Good morning! Today I'm live-tweeting the Illinois State Board of Elections meeting, scheduled at 10:30am, for @CHIdocumenters #CHIdocumenters

10:28 AM Feb 15, 2022 CST

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@CHIdocumenters The meeting is being held both in person and remotely. I'm live tweeting remotely. Agenda and zoom link instructions can be found here: elections.il.gov/AboutTheBoard/…

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Illinois Board of Elections chair Ian Linnabary starts on time and says he hopes it will be their last virtual meeting due to covid.

They're starting with a series of staff service awards.

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Staff directors present 15 and 20 year services awards to six ISBE employees.

Board member Bill Cadigan praises Kyle Thomas for his work after the voter roll data breach to make sure it never happens again.

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The board beings the report of general counsel Marni Malowitz. She presents settlement offers. These are campaigns asking for reduced fines, usually resulting from campaign finance reporting violations.

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The board has a court reporter taking notes, which I hadn't noticed at previous meetings.

No speakers are present for the first two campaign committees. The staff recommendation is approved for both.

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The Washington County Democratic Central Committee is appealing a $100 fine for filing late. Staff recommend the appeal be granted and it's approved without discussion.

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Citizens to Elect Flynn Rush is appealing late filing fines. They're facing a potential $8237 in total fines. A speaker for the committee asks for a settlement of paying half the fine.

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Staff counsel Malowitz questions points out the committee has a negative balance of $31,000 dollars so they may not be able to pay the fine. Board member Cadigan asks the committee representative to explain that.

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Scott Erdman, speaking for the Flynn Rush committee, says he advised the committee to clear up their reports and work with the state board of elections. "I have not had the ability to jump into the past quarterlies and see what they're doing."

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Bill Cadigan responds, "The uncertainty in your tone doesn't give me much confidence in granting a settlement offer." Suggests continuing the matter for a month.

Board member Casandra Watson agrees. "What makes you think they're paying it [the fine] immediately?"

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Staff Malowitz says she won't recommend a settlement offer as long as the committee has a negative balance of $31,000.
Erdman says it may take more than 30 days to get all the reports amended but agrees with a delay. Flynn Rush ran for Metropolitan Water Reclamation District.

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Staff counsel Malowitz lists campaign committee appeals that staff recommend denying. No one is present to speak from those committees and the board approves the staff recommendation without discussion.

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Next item, Glenview School District 34 Referendum, which the board has discussed before. Based on staff recommendation, the board denies their appeal and refers this case to the IL Attorney General or State's Attorney for prosecution.

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The Illinois State Board of Elections goes into closed session for a preliminary hearing on Humphries v. Tony Colatorti for McHenry County Sheriff.

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Colatorti is running in the Republican primary for McHenry County Sheriff. A supporter of his opponent is criminally charged with vandalizing Colatorti's campaign signs, but we don't know if that's related to the current hearing.

dailyherald.com/news/20220203/…

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The board comes back into open session after discussing Humphries v. Tony Colatorti for McHenry County Sheriff. They vote to dismiss the complaint without further discussion.

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ISBE considers proposed rule changes on the agenda.

Chair Linnabary asks, can we require a committee that has been disbanded to pay waived fines before being re-instated?

Board member Donahue says committees can and have disbanded and reformed with a new name to avoid fines.

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Chair Linnabary discusses several of the proposed rule changes in detail with Malowitz. It's difficult to follow.

This reminds me that early Star Trek writers would insert "tech tech tech" into the script and let others add mumbo jumbo later about the warp drive or something.

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Board members suggest detailed edits to proposed rule changes.

Cadigan is bothered by a change made by the General Assembly. Much smaller fines mean campaigns may intentionally delay reporting large contributions. "This works against the intent of campaign finance reporting."

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Member Cadigan is concerned campaigns may intentionally delay reporting a large A-1 contribution near the end of a campaign because new fines passed by the General Assembly are so small.

McGuffage: "The General Assembly has spoken and there's not much we can do about it."

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Malowitz explains, the old rule for late reporting of a large fine was typically 10% of the donation. Example, not reporting two $20,000 fines, meant a $4,000 total fine. Now it would be $20 for each violation so a much smaller $40 fine.

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The board removes language about the "single violation rule" and votes to approve the rules with the changes discussed. The proposed rules will go to JCAR for final approval. JCAR is a committee of the General Assembly that approves all administrative agency rules.

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Moving on to the report of Executive Director Bernadette Matthews. They pass emergency approval of Dominion Democracy Suite voting system poll book for the upcoming election.

Cadigan will vote for it but is uncomfortable with emergency approval.

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They approve a plan for major party candidate petition filling, which happens very soon. They hope to limit the number of people in filing rooms due to COVID.

They give major party caucuses an early tour of the filing room to keep thing moving quickly on filing day.

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Legislative Director Angela Ryan reports next week will be very busy for election bills in the IL General Assembly.

Cadigan asks about their funding in the governor's proposed budget.
Staffer Kirk: Budget is sufficient for their needs and "trending in upward direction."

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Ex Dir Matthews references overview packet about the Electronic Information Registration Center. It's a multistate voter registration data sharing project launched with funding from Pew charitable trust. Data is not sold to political entities.

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Indiana is not participating. Member Cadigan: "We're still not able to share information with Indiana to clean up our voter rolls. That's troubling." All other states bordering IL participate, except Indiana.

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Watson: "Why not ask Indiana to join EIRC?"

The board agrees to engage Indiana to get them to join or find another way to share voter registration information.

42 states don't currently participate. People who move could be registered to vote in multiple states.

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Matthews references a report on voter registration included in board packets. Says the public can find reports mentioned during meetings on the board website and in the published agenda.

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Time for public comments. Someone who requested time is no longer on the zoom call.

Ryan from veganpolitico.org requested in zoom chat to speak. Brings up ISBE RSS feeds. They're no longer available for the calendar.

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Ryan asks ISBE to update their calendar system so people can subscribe. Make it more modern and simple so people can follow board business and election deadlines.

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Chair Linnabary announces closed executive session to discussion personnel and litigation, including discussion of appointing the assistant executive director.

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OK, they come back from closed executive session. They vote unanimously to appoint Jeremy Kirk as assistant executive director of the Illinois Board of Elections for a four year term.

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The March meeting will be in Chicago. It's undetermined if it will be online or in-person. Two board members want in-person and two will be attending via zoom.

The Illinois State Board of Elections meeting adjourns. That concludes my live-tweeting for Chicago Documenters.

View thread

Attachments

Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC) overview

By India Daniels 2/15/2022

Agenda

By India Daniels 2/15/2022

Agency Information

Illinois State Board of Elections

www.elections.il.gov

(312) 814-6440

acalvin@elections.il.gov

@https://twitter.com/illinoissbe

Facebook page

See Documenters reporting

The Illinois State Board of Elections is an independent state agency that was provided for by the 1970 Illinois Constitution to supervise the registration of voters and the administration of elections throughout the state. Created by the Illinois General Assembly in 1973, the Board’s purpose is to serve as the central authority for all Illinois election law, information and procedures in Illinois.