Will County Gazette

The wrong name on an early ballot has raised concerns in Schuyler County.

Schuyler County Republican Party Chairman Jason Goddard told the West Central Reporter that early ballots in Schuyler County had the wrong Republican candidate's name for U.S. Senate. The ballots had Peggy Hubbard as the Republican candidate facing incumbent Democratic Sen. Tammy Duckworth. However, Hubbard was defeated in the June primary by Kathy Salvi.

Goddard said he was made aware of the error on Oct.11 at about 7:30 p.m., and immediately contacted County Clerk Mindy Garrett's office. Garrett called Goddard back the following day around noon and told him that it was a human error originating in her office. 

She told Goddard, "45 early voters have cast votes already on the incorrect ballots. 307 absentee ballots were sent out to voters in Schuyler County. All early voting was stopped immediately and the system was updated. It has been corrected and the ballots are now printing correctly. We have no idea on the status of the early ballots and how they will be counted. We have no idea on the incorrect 307 absentee ballots and how those will be counted. 307 corrected ballots are being sent out as we speak." 

Goddard said that Garrett's office has been "open and honest" and has answered all questions. 

Will County Board member Steve Balich has slammed the ballot mistake in Schuyler County.

"I believe that all the people that voted for any candidate prior to fixing the so-called error should get a re-do and the original votes destroyed," Balich said. "Just counting the Republican votes for Salvi could be shorting her because there are people that would have voted for her. It seems like that kind of error was done on purpose, or the County Clerk is a complete idiot."

"The County Clerk and the State's Attorney were smart enough to campaign and win an election but not smart enough to put the right name on the ballot," Balich said. "Where is the person or persons checking for mistakes? Maybe oversight was forgotten on purpose. This is extremely concerning! Will this group accidentally make a mistake in the final count? Will this biased group of people allow voter fraud if it favors Democrats? Plenty of reasons for ongoing concerns in this county. Maybe along with election judges, a group of Republican and Democrat election lawyers should be paid by Schuyler County to do oversight.”

Illinois GOP Chairman Don Tracy says that election integrity is a top priority for the general election this year. In a June memo, Tracy ensured that the GOP "will be spending considerable resources to recruit, train and manage poll watchers, election judges and election lawyers — all of whom will be our eyes and ears to provide accountability at the ground level in polling places in every precinct. In that endeavor, we need 3,000 to 4,000 election judges and 1,000 poll watchers statewide to effectively provide election oversight." 

Tracy wants to get the public involved in election integrity with the hopes of turning this trend around, Prairie State Wire reported.

This comes as five Republican candidates for McLean County Board were removed from the ballot on technicalities this past spring.

Esther Joy King, who is the Republican candidate for the 17th Congressional District, bragged about the success of an election integrity seminar this past spring. She said, "The Illinois Conservative Union gave an informative presentation about protecting your vote by keeping election laws local, stopping a federal takeover by liberals in Washington, DC, and discussing opportunities for people to personally help protect our election process, including becoming a poll watcher or election judge. These positions are critical to protecting the integrity of our elections," Rock Island Today reported.