Incorrect ballots given to some Skokie voters
Ahead of municipal elections on Tuesday, Village of Skokie officials announced that some residents received incorrect ballots listing the names of candidates outside of their trustee district. This is the first time voters will elect district trustees in the village, after voters in a 2022 election approved this new geographically representative form of village government.
Officials from the village and Cook County dispute what, or who, caused the error. A village spokesperson said Skokie provided Cook County with accurate and timely trustee maps, and that the error occurred in that office. A county spokesperson said Skokie officials provided inaccurate boundary information to the Cook County Clerk's Office, the chief election authority in suburban Cook County.
'The Cook County Clerk's Office was required to send out corrected mail ballots for two districts in Skokie after local officials provided inaccurate boundary information to the Clerk's Office for those districts,' Sally Daly, the deputy clerk of communications for the County Clerk's office, told Pioneer Press in an email.
'The (Cook County) Clerk's Office was not informed of this error until March 17, the first day of Early Voting,' Daly said.
The Clerk's office contacted the 50 voters who had voted on faulty ballots and provided them corrected replacement ballots the day after they voted on the incorrect ballots, she said, 'with a letter informing them that due to the re-districting done by the Village of Skokie for the newly created districts, that they had been incorrectly placed in the wrong district. These voters were instructed to return the new ballot and to disregard the one that had previously been sent.'
The Clerk's Office also immediately corrected the ballot information on Early Voting equipment at all election precincts that were impacted, she added.
As a result, no votes were disqualified, she said.
Patrick Deignan, the village's director of communications and community engagement, said in an email, 'The Village contracted with outside counsel, Klein, Thorpe & Jenkins, which provided accurate trustee district boundary descriptions to Cook County. The village confirmed with the county that the ordinance and district maps that were filed with the county were accurate.
Deignan continued, 'The error occurred in the Cook County Election Board's office, and the Election Board has assured the village that it has corrected its error.'
On Tuesday, voters will elect four district trustees, one for each of four districts, and two at-large trustees for the whole village. This hybrid approach to representation on the Village Board was implemented as a result of a series of election referenda approved by Skokie voters in 2022.
According to a news release uploaded to the village's website on March 29, Skokie Clerk Minal Desai became aware of at least two incorrect ballots when early voting began on March 17. The ballots allowed Skokie residents that live in District 2 to vote for a District 3 trustee.
Mayor George Van Dusen, Village Manager John Lockerby and Corporation Counsel Michael Lorge and outside counsel also knew of the incorrect ballots and implored the Cook County Election Board to correct the ballots, per the news release.
Deignan said the incorrect ballot reports came from Skokie residents who live near a trustee district boundary. He added that the village requested the county to provide affected residents with corrected ballots, as well as a letter informing those residents of the error.
The Cook County Clerk's office is still expected to be able to provide accurate and timely election results Tuesday night, Deignan said.
Desai did not respond to multiple requests for comment on Monday.
Deignan did not immediately respond to Pioneer Press's inquiry about Daly's comments.
The ballot gaffe has created political fodder for candidates who are running for Skokie clerk, including Desai, who is running after she was appointed clerk in 2024.
Naema Abraham, a current school board member for Niles Township High School District 219 and village clerk candidate, posted on her Facebook page March 28 that the village clerk is responsible for verifying the district trustee maps, and that the current clerk's failure to do so caused the blunder in the ballots.
'These errors reflect a serious lack of diligence and preparedness. Skokie residents deserve a village clerk who is proactive, accurate and accountable — someone who ensures every vote is counted properly and every voter receives correct information,' she posted.
James Johnson, a current Skokie trustee who is running for the village clerk position, posted the following on their Facebook page March 28.
'From my understanding, this mistake was entirely avoidable. District map allocations were sent to the village in December 2024, but the village clerk's office did not adequately review this information or respond with any corrections until Early Voting had already begun.'
'As the initiator of Skokie's new 'hybrid' electoral system, which combines at-large and district-based Trustee positions for the first time, I am disappointed by this error in an otherwise excellent implementation process.'
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