Will County Gazette

A Democratic Party "goon" is allegedly 'strutting' around the Will County Clerk’s Office intimidating Republican poll watchers, according to the Will County GOP.

In an election eve press release, Will County Republican Chairman George Pearson said the suspicious pollwatcher was sent to the Will County Clerk’s Office by State House Speaker Michael Madigan, who also serves as the state party's chairman. 

“The Madigan-sent pollwatcher from Cook County roamed Staley-Ferry's offices at will, talking to his acquaintances working there and making himself at home like he owned the place,” Pearson wrote in an account of the action on the scene.

 Pearson said while the Madigan goon appeared to be bored at first, he did come around. 

“When the pollwatching started, he mostly looked at his cell phone and texted his girlfriend,” Pearson wrote. “But it turns out he did have a job. Today, this Madigan-sent pollwatcher said ‘he could be doing better things but he was sent to watch you’ while staring and pointing at Republican pollwatcher Ed Ronkowski.”  

The Will County GOP recently said the “integrity of the election cannot be guaranteed” after Madigan cronies were reported to be controlling the election authority. 

In one instance, Pearson said it was clear Madigan's men were trying to impact the outcome of the election in Will County. 

"Last week, an Election Judge panel in (Will County Clerk Lauren) Staley-Ferry's presence ruled that the ballot envelopes were open but accepted them," Pearson wrote. "A Republican pollwatcher called to the attention of the Judges of Election that this was an incorrect procedure and an apparent violation of the Election Code and asked them to reconsider. The Election Judges discussed the issue, re-voted and unanimously rejected the ballots that were received in open ballot envelopes." 

A Madigan poll watcher apparently did not like this. 

"The Madigan-sent pollwatcher interrupted and started shouting at the Republican pollwatcher saying that the Republican pollwatcher was lying, that he could not talk to the Election Judges and for the Republican pollwatcher to shut up," Pearson wrote. "When the Republican Pollwatcher tried to calmly continue where he left off before being interrupted, the Democrat Pollwatcher started shouting even louder. This happened again with a third panel of Election Judges. This is an old Chicago trick. The Democrat operative will shout at the Republican pollwatcher. The normal response is to shout back. The Election Judges then throw out the Republican pollwatcher for shouting." 

Pearson said a clerk's office employee lectured GOP poll watchers after the incident. 

He added the clerk's office is careless in ensuring signatures are accurate.

"Watching this process of signature comparisons, one Election Judge was observed clicking through the signature comparisons on the split screen at a rate of one per second for almost all such comparisons, and accepting 99% of the signatures, including signatures marked no-match by the other Election Judges. Such decisions about whether the ballot will count or not should not be made literally in a split second," Pearson wrote. 

As of Friday, 167,673 had voted in Will County, over double the total count of mail-in ballots in the 2016 presidential election.