[Peace-discuss] From the Greens, on the Election Commission

[C. G. Estabrook]

[Al Weiss of the local Greens provides here what seems to me clear reason
to vote against the local Democrats' proposal for an election commission,
to do the work now done by the Champaign County Clerk, Mark Shelden.
Proponents of the commission seem to be producing only vague smears of
Shelden.  --CGE]


The question of whether or not Mark Shelden is a political hack is not at
question this election.  The question at hand is whether an Election
Commission would better help alleviate the abuses that Mark Shelden is
accused of (whether or not is guilty as charged).  My reading of the State
Statutes on and Election Commission leads me to conclude that it would 1)
encourage political discrimination in the composition and appointing of
the Board, and, 2) would be almost entirely unaccountable to the general
public.  As such, it seems that it would do a worse job of protecting the
right to run for office and of ensuring voter rights while being even more
partisan than the current system.

The first problem is the definition of the board.  Section 6-22 of the
Illinois Election Code should be quoted in full here:

(10 ILCS 5/6‑22) (from Ch. 46, par. 6‑22) Sec. 6‑22.  Two of such
commissioners at least shall always be selected from the 2 leading
political parties of the state, one from each of such parties, and all
shall be legal voters residing in such city, village or incorporated town,
and be persons of well known political convictions and of approved
integrity and capacity. No commissioner can hold any other political
office. Whenever it shall come to the knowledge of the court that one of
the leading political parties of the state is not represented upon such
commission by a person of the same political faith, the court shall at
once remove one of such commissioners and fill the vacancy with a member
of the leading political party not so represented. (Source: P.A.
80‑656.)

By legally defining the board as being comprised of "the two leading
parties" this section of the code virtually locks out the participation of
third parties and independents and therefore codifies political
discrimination.  While in theory, the board could be comprised of one
member of each leading party and an independent or third party member, it
is wholly unlikely that such a situation would arise.  Furthermore, this
decision is not made by the third party or independent, the
electorate-at-large, nor even by the entire County Board, but only by the
Chair of the County Board.

As the County Clerk system stands now, third parties and independents can
stand for office as well as directly vote for who holds the office.
   While this is not perfect because 1) the position itself is still
partisan, and 2) the political discrimination inherent in election law
makes it difficult for third parties and independents to run for this
position, it does seem far more democratic than the commission because
there is 1) still direct voter participation in electing the office-holder
and 2) whether or not third parties or independents run is not based on
their own decision, not the mercy of the Chair of the County Board

While the composition is highly troubling, the definition of the two
leading parties makes the composition even less democratic.  Leading
Political Parties are defined as:

(10 ILCS 5/1‑3) "Leading political party" means one of the two political
parties whose candidates for governor at the most recent three
gubernatorial elections received either the highest or second highest
average number of votes. The political party whose candidates for governor
received the highest average number of votes shall be known as the first
leading political party and the political party whose candidates for
governor received the second highest average number of votes shall be
known as the second leading political party. (Source: P.A. 90‑358, eff.
1‑1‑98.)

In other words, regardless of the composition of local bodies and who is
elected to them, the gubernatorial race defines who can be on the board.  
This again inherently discriminates against regional parties and
independents whether or not there is a substantial number of non-"leading
party" people in elected office.

Once again, while the County Clerk system is not perfect, it is more
likely to be sensitive to regional parties and independents as the
position is directly accountable to the public.

Finally, while Commissions in cities and towns are Court appointed, the
Election Commission is wholly appointed by the Chair of the County Board.  
the only exception is if the County Clerk desires to sit on the Board (and
I'm not sure if this is only for when the commission is created or if it
is a standing condition--perhaps a lawyer or near lawyer could help out?):

(10 ILCS 5/6A‑3) (from Ch. 46, par. 6A‑3) county board of election
commissioners shall be appointed by the chairman of the county board
(Source: P.A. 91‑358, eff. 7‑29‑99.)

Because the Chair is holds the cards for who is on the Board, and as the
Chair is only accountable to the voters in her/his district, there is 1)
incredible room for abuse on who is appointed to the position 2)  no
accountability for the appointments to the electorate at large 3) a high
likelihood that partisanship would be the defining factor in the
appointment, and 4) the Chair determines who the "second leading party"  
member will be (which again leads to a high likelihood of abuse).

Because this commission would be so indebted to political partisanship and
patronage, it seems naive to think that it wouldn't exist solely to
enforce partisan advantage.

Again while the County Clerk system is not perfect, it does provide for
the input of the entire electorate and the County Clerk is more
accountable to the abuses that appointment of a Commission than a County
Board Chair would be who.

A County Board of Election Commissioners is so discriminatory in it's
composition and so unaccountable in it's selection and operation, I cannot
see any way that elections would be run more fairly or cleanly than with
the present system...