In the tight race in the Illinois House 45th District, incumbent Deanne Mazzochi (R-Elmhurst) has prevailed in her suit against DuPage County Clerk Jean Kaczmarek over claims signatures on mail-in ballots are not being properly verified.
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In an order entered Tuesday afternoon (Nov. 15) in Wheaton, Judge James Orel of the 18th Judicial Circuit Court issued a temporary restraining order prohibiting Kaczmarek “from using any signature on a Vote by Mail application in connection with validating signatures on the Vote by Mail ballot.”
In her suit, Mazzochi claimed that Kazmarek’s office was improperly verifying signatures on mail-in ballot. According to Mazzochi’s suit, election officials were failing to verify that signatures on mail-in ballots match signatures on original voter registration cards.
Instead, Mazzochi said, officials were in some cases only checking signatures on ballots against signatures on applications for vote-by-mail ballots, opening the way for fraudulent vote-by-mail ballot applications and ballots.
Judge Orel agreed, saying in his order, “Use of the Vote by Mail ballot application to qualify signatures on the Vote by Mail ballot itself would be an obvious way to commit ballot fraud.”
Mazzochi filed the suit Monday, Nov. 14, as the Clerk’s Office unofficial vote tally showed challenger Jen Ladisch Douglass ahead of Mazzochi by 207 votes out of more than 42,000 votes cast. Mail-in ballots may account for about 20 % of the ballots cast in the race.
In a statement after the court action, Mazzochi said, “The Court rightly recognized that using a Vote by Mail application to qualify signatures on the Vote by Mail ballot itself “would be an obvious way to commit ballot fraud,” and that restraining the Clerk from following this process immediately will protect the integrity of the election process to the benefit of both candidates.”
Efforts Tuesday to reach both the clerk and challenger Douglass for comment were unsuccessful. But Mazzochi said in her statement the restraining order was good news for both candidates and voters.
“Voting by mail cannot work without stringent protections and secure procedures to ensure that a voter’s identity is not stolen,” Mazzochi said. “The Court’s Order will now protect voters for the remainder of this election and tabulation process.”
In general, properly verified mailed ballots will be counted in vote totals as long as they are postmarked on or before the day of the election, Nov. 8, and received within two weeks of that date.
This story has been updated.
Graydon Megan is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.