Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Illinois vote fraud update: Two indicted for phony petition signatures

The latest Illinois vote fraud accusation comes from just north of me--in Lake County.

This morning, two former campaign workers for state Sen. Terry Link (D-Waukegan) were indicted on forgery and perjury charges. Thirty spurious signatures on a Link ballot petition caught the attention of the Lake County State's Attorney.

This story has an ironic twist. One of Link's opponents in this year's Democratic primary was former North Chicago Mayor Jerry Johnson. He challenged those thirty signatures, but Link in turn challenged some of Johnson's signatures--which led to Johnson getting knocked off the ballot. Link kept his ballot spot and won the primary. Republican Keith Gray will face Link in the general election.

Link is the chairman of the Lake County Democratic Party.

The petition accusations go back to at least last winter, as this YouTube video shows. Speakers at a Waukegan protest alleged that dead people "signed" Link's nominating papers.

Illinois' reputation as the the worst state for vote fraud of late has been getting challenged by Wisconsin. So it should come as no surprise that Lake County's northern border abuts the Badger State, and there are some "cheesehead" tendencies there. One of the protesters in the video is wearing a Green Bay Packers jacket.

Lake, with over 600,000 residents, is Illinois' third most populous county.

Barack Obama, who likes to tout his work as a voting rights attorney, was silent when the 2004 East St. Louis vote fraud scandal played out. He'll be quiet again.

Related posts:

Vote fraud news: Obama, ACORN, and East St. Louis
Hypocrite Obama won't tolerate election theft
GOP official: Illinoisans tried to vote in last month's Ind. Dem primary

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4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Mr. Ruberry ends, "He'll be quiet again."

You want a man running for president to comment on what a local county party chair's petition gatherers did?

Has McCain really spoken out about conservative uber-bagman Jack Abramoff? That's a hella bigger scandal than 30 signatures on a local petition. If Mac has talked about Abramoff, it was a pretty quiet remark.

(And I agree, Link should've vetted his petition gatherers much better.)

Marathon Pundit said...

It's the pattern of vote fraud he should speak out on. Obama was a candidate for the Senate in 2004 when the vote buying scheme went down.

And Link is the chairman of the Lake County Dem Party...

McCain..he led the charge against Abramoff:

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20051114/berman

Anonymous said...

The Abramoff vote buying had been going on for years before McCain's committee bothered to start an investigation in 2004.

And it was the Dept of Justice which brought Abramoff to task. The McCain-led Senate committee held a few hearings and despite McCain's promise in the Nation article you reference that "Clearly, lobbying reform is one of those issues that will be addressed [after the investigation]" ... what results did McCain produce?

Hiring 115 lobbyists to run his presidential campaign and allowing them to continue raking in questionable cash even while on his campaign trail, including cash from foreign governments, is not exactly "lobbying reform."

The GOP sure did complain that Clinton had the Lincoln Bedroom for sale. McCain's actions clearly indicate the West Wing would be for sale if he gets elected.

Marathon Pundit said...

Obama has no lobbyists on his payroll?

This one is from December:

http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/lobbyists-on-obamas-08-payroll-2007-12-20.html