Illinois Supreme Court rejects clerk in tight legislative race

In an unsigned order Monday, the Illinois Supreme Court denied the DuPage County clerk’s request to overturn a local judge’s order that ordered the clerk how she must verify the authenticity of late ballots.

The ruling came Tuesday if ballots were mailed out on or before Election Day, Nov. 8. can be checked and counted — with a tight race between GOP Rep. Dina Mazzocchi and Democratic challenger Jen Ladish Douglas, both of Elmhurst, hanging in the balance.

As of Monday, unofficial voting results showed Douglas with a 343-vote lead over Mazzocchi in the district, which also includes part of western Cook County, 21,864 to 21,521.

The case examines how late and mail-in ballots are checked and counted in DuPage County.

Matsocki, an attorney and assistant to the House GOP leader, alleged that DuPage County Clerk Jean Kaczmarek improperly verified signatures on mail-in ballots by using vote-by-mail applications instead of a voter registration signature at the clerk’s office.

Matsochi sued to challenge the signature verification method, and last week DuPage County Judge James Arrell sided with Matsochi and ordered Kaczmarek to authenticate mail-in ballots using the voter registration signature on file in her office and prohibited administration from using signatures on postal vote applications to verifying signatures on mailed ballots.

“Using a mail-in ballot application to qualify signatures on the mail-in ballot itself would be an obvious way to falsify ballots,” Orol said in his order.

Orel Kaczmarek’s order also said that if a voter’s signature on a mail-in ballot does not match the voter’s signature on the document, the ballot must be separate, marked “rejected” and follow the procedures necessary to contact the voter to verify its authenticity.

Kaczmarek filed for emergency supervision with the Illinois Supreme Court to overturn Orel’s ruling, arguing that the court could not interfere with the vote count and that Matsoka’s actions were premature, as she would be able to participate in the election after all the ballots had been counted.

Kaczmarek’s statement warned that Orel’s actions “encourage political agents of any political affiliation to file unauthorized lawsuits in the midst of the current election vote count in hopes that an Illinois court will assume the role of election official and order the vote count in any manner they see fit.” “.

The Supreme Court ruling on Monday means Eagle’s order remains in place. Matsoki has the opportunity to contest the election results.

In a court filing, Matsoki said the court’s intervention was necessary to “ensure that the Electoral Code is followed and only legitimate votes are counted.”

Without the court’s involvement, she argued, “the clerk’s illegal actions will remain unchecked, and the election results will be tallied in violation of the law.”

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