Dem County Board Chairman: "Deeply concerned" about East St. Louis vote selling scandal

From yesterday's Belleville News-Democrat:

St. Clair County Board Chairman Mark Kern is "deeply concerned" about East St. Louis voters being given money to vote, and will have a committee research how to convince voters to consolidate elections.

(My note: where was that concern before last year's election?)

In a letter dated Friday -- his first public comment about the problem since five East St. Louis Democratic politicians were convicted of federal vote fraud last month -- Kern stated: "I am informed this practice has been going on for a long time. It is against the law and must stop."
Kern said he asked officials in his county Democratic Party to "... take steps to make sure this practice does not happen again."

During a month-long federal trial in East St. Louis, witnesses testified that before the Nov. 2 election, East St. Louis politicians claimed they needed to pay double, or $10 a vote, to get Kern elected County Board chairman because Kern, who is white, was perceived to be a racist by the largely black community.

No evidence linked Kern to vote buying or to being a racist. He was not charged with any wrongdoing.

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Republican County Board member Steve Reeb was not impressed with Kern's plan. Reeb narrowly lost the County Board chairman race to Kern, with the difference being a heavy Democratic vote majority in East St. Louis.

"I cannot express deeply enough what a hypocrite Mark Kern is," he said. "He and the Democrat machine have fought the Republicans for years on the issue of consolidating elections and disbanding the East St. Louis election board. Now Kern finds himself in hot water and does an about-face on the issue."

Reeb said he didn't believe that vote buying was directly connected to the city's election board.

"You don't blame vote buying on the East St. Louis election board. You blame it on the Democrat Party," Reeb said. "Now all of a sudden he's for reform. It's almost too much to expect the public to stomach." Just before the Nov. 2 election, $10,000 was diverted from a Republican state supreme court candidate's coffers and was given to Reeb's political committee. Reeb has said that this money was then used to help get out the vote for him and other Republicans in East St. Louis. County Democrats distributed $73,000 two days before the election.