By John Ruberry
“Let me tell you about Florida politicians. I make them. I make them out of whole cloth, just like a tailor makes a suit. I get their name in the newspaper. I get them some publicity and get them on the ballot. Then after the election, we count the votes. And if they don’t turn out right, we recount them. And recount them again. Until they do.” Johnny Rocco (Edward G. Robinson) in Key Largo.
“Ever get the feeling you’ve been cheated?” Johnny Rotten, at the end of the last Sex Pistols concert of their 1978 tour.
Last night a bombshell broke as votes are still being counted in from last week’s Illinois Primary in Cook County. Cook, where I live, is Chicago and its inner suburbs. It’s as Democratic as Manhattan. In the 2020 election, Joe Biden collected nearly 75 percent of the vote.
As I noted in my DTG post two weeks ago, the Cook County state’s attorney race was collecting most of the attention of voters. Jussie Smollett’s protector, the pro-criminal and George Soros-funded Democratic incumbent, Kim Foxx, after two tumultuous–for law-abiding citizens–terms in office, is retiring. Running on non-specifics, Clayton Harris III–Rod Blagojevich’s last chief-of-staff–received the endorsement of the extreme-left Chicago Teachers Union. The CTU is arguably the most powerful political force in Chicago. It placed Chicago’s leftist mayor, Brandon Johnson, one of their former organizers, in office. If CTU is behind Harris, you can assume he’ll continue the failed legacy of Foxx.
The other candidate, who I endorsed, is a traditional Democrat Eileen O’Neill Burke, who has promised to dial back some of the extreme pro-criminal polices of Foxx. Violent crime, theft and more has soared under her misrule
On the morning after Election Day, O’Neill Burke was leading Harris by 51-49 percent–about 10,000 votes–with votes from a few stray precincts and many mail-in ballots uncounted. Per Illinois law, any ballot postmarked on Election Day or earlier that is received at the local board of elections by April 2 must be counted. It’s believed that most of the mail-in ballots have been received and already counted, and not surprisingly, O’Neill Burke’s lead has shrunk to 4,000 votes. The far-left has embraced alternative forms of voting.
Illinois has drop boxes for ballots too.
Yep, just like in the Dinesh D’Souza movie, 2,000 Mules. Yep, Mark Zuckerberg boxes.
Last night, Alderman Brian Hopkins, who represents downtown Chicago, dropped a bombshell on X. His original post was deleted, here’s what he had to say last night:
Correction: after counting what was stated as most of the remaining mail-in & dropbox ballots, EOB [Eileen O’Neill Burke] holds a 4,000+ lead. BUT…election staff told me they misstated the total number of remaining ballots, and 14,710 more (most are dropbox, so not postmarked) still must be counted.
It gets worse. Because the Chicago Board of Elections may have had these ballots since last Monday.
Why weren’t these votes counted Tuesday night? Or heck, Wednesday morning even? By the way, decades ago, when I was a Little Marathon Pundit, even in the closest elections, we knew who won an election a day to two later after polls closed–at the latest. We’re declining as a society even as technology has greatly progressed.
It gets worse. Here are a couple posts from Max Bever of the CBOE earlier than Hopkins’ second X post last night. Bever apparently found some ballots he “mistakenly left out.” If you call his move a “Bever hunt,” then shame on you. Anyway, to refresh your memory, the alderman said the “found” ballots are drop box votes.
Statement from Max Bever, Director of Public Information, Chicago Board of Elections: “In adding up the total number of Vote By Mail ballots the Board had received back so far, I mistakenly left out additional ballots that had been received back via USPS the evening of Mon, 3/18.
I traded speed for accuracy in reporting out numbers this week as quickly as I could. I truly regret this error on my part and for the confusion that it has caused the voters of Chicago. I will share updated numbers only when they are accurate and verified.
The vote counting continues this afternoon.
I am crossing my fingers and praying that EOB holds on to her lead. With the crime high rates in the Chicago area, my life may depend on it. For real. I’m at vulnerable age that thugs view as a target.
At the very least, you call what is happening in the Cook County vote count irregular and incompetent.
Except for verifiable reasons, such as a military deployments and temporary out-of-state work assignments, absentee and early voting should be abolished. Drop boxes should be unconditionally dropped.
Whatever happens in the state’s attorney race, supporters of both candidates are probably going to cry “foul.”
And if there is credible evidence of a stolen election in the Cook County state’s attorney race, then we have an even more serious problem. Because if large numbers of citizens don’t trust the election results, it calls into question the legitimacy of government–and of American society.
There were lot of “irregularities” and then some in the 2020 presidential election. But Democrats were silent four years ago because they liked the result.
Yes, there were certainly many Republican crossover voters, but about half of Cook County voters backed O’Neill Burke in last week’s primary. Many Democrats, at least in Cook County, might soon have a different opinion on mail-in voting and drop box ballots soon.
It’s quite likely that updates to this post are coming.
Oh, for the days when we only had Election Day, not Election Season. Oh, for the days when votes were counted in one night–not for a whole week.
UPDATE 7:40pm EDT:
Election Week County continues, as NBC Chicago’s Mary Ann Ahern tells us. Oh, some background. The Cook County Clerk counts suburban votes, the Chicago Board of Elections tallies city votes. Why not just one agency? The public sector is rotten to the core. Ahern in the first X post appears to be referring here to suburban votes.
The Cook County Board of Elections tonight says it will count the remaining Vote by Mail votes on Monday. There are a little more than 1 thousand County votes not yet counted. The bulk of their VBM ballots, 7 thousand were added to the County totals on Thursday. #StatesAtty
But what about the county-wide total? Well, Eileen O’Neill Burke’s lead continues to shrink, as Ahern reports.
NEW: @EileenCookCnty lead now ist [sic] 2015 over @ClaytonforCook#StatesAtty.
Update March 29 9:30 EDT:
After ten days–yes, ten days–of vote counting in Crook County, Clayton Harris III, the Kim Foxx candidate, has conceded, about an hour after AP called the race for Eileen O’Neill Burke and after EOB declared victory. The retired judge won by 1,500 votes out of over 500,000 cast.
John Ruberry regularly blogs at Marathon Pundit.
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