Sheila Thomas is one of the recently convicted Democratic precinct captains who was part of an election day vote buying scheme last year in East St. Louis, IL. She's still claiming innocence, but according to the Belleville News-Democrat, she thinks Democrats higher up, specifically, St. Clair County Democratic Party Chairman Robert Sprague should go on trial.
Sprague and St. Clair County Chairman Robert Kern (the main beneficiary of the fiduciary vote drive) are claiming they knew nothing of the East St. Louis vote buying, although, in an earlier article from the Belleville News-Democrat, residents interviewed in this hard-luck city acknowledge vote buying has been going on there for many years.
From today's News-Democrat:
"We got into this because they gave us money," Thomas, 31, said about $73,000 passed out in East St. Louis two days before the Nov. 2 election. St. Clair County Democratic Central Committee Chairman Robert Sprague distributed the funds by giving checks to city Democratic precinct committeemen.
County Democrats have said the money, which is passed out in the city for every election, was intended to get people to the polls, not to pay them to vote.
Some more from the Belleville News-Democrat:
"Bob Sprague is the one who gave us our checks. He gave us the money. He, too, should have been tried.... We all should have been sitting at the same (defense) table. All of us. All the (East St. Louis) precinct committeemen. All the guys in Belleville. Not just the five of us because that wasn't fair," she said.
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