A Cook County grand jury has ordered the Chicago Board of Election Commissioners to seal all records relating to petitions seeking a referendum on the question of a nonpartisan mayoral election, and U. S. Atty. Anton Valukas has assigned a task force to cooperate in the search for petition irregularities.
The order to seal the records came Tuesday as the grand jury began an investigation into allegations of fraud with regard to the petitions. Valukas announced his action Wednesday and also said the FBI has agreed to allow use of its laboratory to examine potential forgeries on petitions.
”We have not concluded the existence of any federal criminal law violations,” Valukas said after an hour-long meeting with a group of ministers, Clergy for Fair Elections.
Valukas, who emphasized his office is not conducting a separate probe but merely is cooperating with other authorities, added that he is continuing to consult with the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice in Washington.
The task force, he said, would be headed by Assistant U. S. Atty. Ira Raphaelson, who was in charge of the prosecution several years ago of people accused of violating federal voting laws in connection with the 1980 general election.
”We are concerned with the maintenance of the integrity of this
(election) process,” Valukas said. ”There appears to be some evidence, some say substantial, of forgery on the petitions.”
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He noted that forgeries in themselves are not violations of federal law and that if the referendum does not get on the ballot, the whole question of federal violations could be moot.
The grand jury order on Tuesday included both the petitions and objections to them filed Tuesday by Mayor Harold Washington`s supporters, who appeared to have exaggerated claims that 98,378 of the 196,000 signatures were invalid.
An examination of the objections by Tribune reporters indicated, for example, that some signatures were challenged as invalid because signers wrote their addresses without putting ”St.” or ”Ave.” after the name of their streets.
James Nolan, a member of the elections board, which will rule on the challenges, said such objections were not enough to challenge a signature.
”We don`t toss out a name because `St.` was left off or the street name was misspelled,” Nolan said.
As Tribune reporters were winding up their random survey of the mayor`s objections at the election board office in City Hall late Tuesday, grand jury subpoenas were delivered ordering all records and documents sealed. The board will retain control of the records, but the state`s attorney`s office plans to place custodians near the precinct registration binders to preserve their value as evidence, sources close to the investigation said.
In addition, sources and others said, the grand jury issued subpoenas to Chicago`s four major television news operations seeking all tapes of interviews relating to allegations of fraud in connection with the
controversial referendum issue. Officials of several stations said they will consult their lawyers before complying.
The grand jury investigation is being conducted under the direction of Michael Angarola, a top assistant to Cook County State`s Atty. Richard Daley. Daley, seen as a likely mayoral candidate should the referendum for a nonpartisan mayoral election get on the ballot and win approval, has removed himself from a role in investigating the fraud charges.
Asked about the appointment of Angarola to head the grand jury probe, Valukas said Wednesday he has ”every faith in the integrity of Mike Angarola and the integrity of the state`s attorney`s office.”
In other developments in the referendum controversy:
— Bernard Carey, a former Cook County state`s attorney who is the Republican candidate for Illinois attorney general, criticized Daley for allowing Angarola to conduct the investigation instead of naming a special prosecutor. ”If I were in the office under a similar situation,” said Carey, who was defeated by Daley in 1980, ”I would step aside and approve a separate independent panel to fill the role of special prosecutor.”
— U.S. Rep. William Lipinski (D., Ill.), who led the petition drive in support of the referendum, said Tuesday that the mayor`s statements about fraud ”border on the hysterical.”
— Nolan, meanwhile, the lone Republican on the elections board, said he hasn`t decided how he will vote when the challenges to the petitions come before the board. Last week he sided with election board Chairman Michael Lavelle, in a preliminary 2-1 decision, in favor of placing the referendum on the ballot.
The Tribune`s examination of the petition objections indicated that many of the challenges may lack merit. The reporters, however, sampled only 35 of more than 8,000 signature sheets under challenge.
Under state law, the petitions must contain 142,824 valid signatures before the referendum can be placed on the ballot. To successfully challenge the petitions on the basis of invalid signatures, the mayor`s supporters must convince the election board to throw out about 64,000 signatures. However, the objection filed by the mayor`s camp also asked that the referendum be disallowed on other grounds.
What Tribune reporters found in several instances was that though the mayor`s supporters had challenged signatures as forgeries, the people whose signatures were challenged insisted that they had signed the petition sheets. One signature that was challenged as a forgery belonged to James L. Stack, 40, of 3702 S. Normal Ave., who said he circulated ”about 10 petitions.” Stack`s challenger contended his signature was not the same as his signature on file in an election board binder book, where lists of registered voters are kept.
Stack and his wife, Barbara, said that he signed the election board records 19 years ago, when he first registered to vote at age 21, and that his handwriting has altered considerably since.
”Sure that`s my signature,” Stack said Tuesday. ”They can challenge all they want, but mine are all legitimate.”
Another petition circulator who was challenged, Angelo Ciaravino, denied that his petitions contained forged signatures.
”Sure I circulated that petition,” he said. ”I`m a precinct captain.” To check, a reporter fed him one family name on his petition–Gorman–and asked the first names of the several Gormans listed. Ciaravino rattled them off without hesitation.