Chicago Election Board Manager Fired
CHICAGO (STMW) -- A Chicago election official has been fired in the aftermath of a contentious election that has resulted in a criminal probe of disruptive robocalls and complaints about "irregularities" in handling ballots in the state treasurer's race.
A division manager for the Chicago Board of Election Commissioners has been fired, said Jim Allen, a board spokesman.
Allen would only say the person fired was a division manager and not "a top manager." He declined to say why the person was fired, saying it was a personnel issue.
The firing comes amidst complaints from the campaign of Republican candidate for state treasurer Tom Cross. A lawyer for the campaign wrote a letter to the Chicago Board of Election Commissioners about "numerous irregularities identified by election monitors in the handling of ballots" for the Nov. 4 election.
"In fact, we are informed and believe that at least one employee of the [Chicago Board of Election Commissioners] has been terminated in conjunction with — if not because of — these irregularities," lawyer William J. Quinlan wrote in the letter, which was obtained by Early & Often.
Cross and Democrat Michael Frerichs have been locked in a tight contest for state treasurer. According to Quinlan's letter, Cross' Election Night victory margin of 30,000 has since narrowed to "only a few hundred votes."
So far, no winner has been declared.
Meanwhile, County State's Attorney Anita Alvarez has launched a criminal investigation into a barrage of pre-election robocalls that gave false instructions to election judges — a chaos-sowing endeavor that elections officials called "a serious attempt to disrupt" Chicago voting.
(Source: Sun-Times Media Wire © Chicago Sun-Times 2014. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)