-Caveat Lector- http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewPolitics.asp?Page=\Politics\archive\200107\POL20 010716a.html Chicago Jail Inmates Courted For Absentee Voting By Gene J. Koprowski CNSNews.com Correspondent July 16, 2001 Chicago (CNSNews.com) - The Chicago Board of Election Commissioners made special provisions in the weeks before last fall's presidential election to ensure that county jail prisoners registered to vote absentee, and that approximately 1,900 absentee ballots from those inmates were promptly and properly tabulated, according to information obtained by CNSNews.com via the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). The commissioners are formally appointed by the Cook County Circuit Court for three-year terms. However, Chicago Mayor Richard Daley, the brother of Al Gore's campaign manager, Bill Daley, has influence over who gets nominated. Preferential registration accommodations, however, were not made by the commissioners for military or overseas absentee voters, officials said. Being 'Very Helpful' to Inmates "On Tuesday, October 24th, we will receive approximately 1,500 applications for absentee ballots from the Cook County Department of Corrections," reads an October 2, 2000 memorandum by Celine O'Sullivan, manager of election support activities for the board. The memo, entitled "Processing Pretrial Detainee Applications for Absentee Ballots," was obtained following a three-month FOIA probe conducted by CNSNews.com. "Since we only have a week to process the applications in order to deliver the ballots on November 2nd, it would be very helpful if we could have the Data Processing personnel enter the applications on Wednesday, October 25th," the memo advised. The memorandum was sent to Dan Doyle, the election board's manager of records processing, registration and file maintenance. Also receiving a copy of the memo was Rose Torres, a supervisor in the absentee balloting department. Exercising a Right Before It's Taken Away A spokesman for the board, Thomas Leach, said the city has put in place a process to ensure that the accused criminals can exercise their right to vote before it is taken away in the event the inmate is convicted of a felony charge. "What this is, is a program that we have with the Cook County Department of Corrections to both register and vote by absentee ballot persons who are being detained in the Department of Corrections, pretrial," said Leach. According to Leach, the program is an effort to ensure that eligible voters who are behind bars are able to cast their ballot. "Under Illinois law, once you're incarcerated on a crime, you cannot vote at that time. However, if you are awaiting trial in jail, or in the Cook County Jail, you are allowed to cast a ballot," said Leach. Getting Out the Inmate Vote In the weeks before the election, Leach said, the board dispatched representatives of its Community Services department to the Department of Corrections to undertake a special voter registration drive. "Working with the Department of Corrections, we register to vote anyone who is not registered and wishes to do so," said Leach. "We then set up, the weekend before the election, absentee voting. We have several locations throughout the jail." At these prison polling places, the inmates line up, and their voting information, address, and signature - all of the data on their absentee voting applications - is checked. The prisoners then "are voted," said Leach. Leach said there are provisions to ensure that convicted felons are not allowed to vote, but those safeguards are not undertaken by election officials. Instead, Leach said that task is left to jailers. "It's up to the Department of Corrections, and they do this for us, since they have the first-hand knowledge, and anybody who is actually serving a sentence [for a felony conviction], that ballot is then pulled and they are not allowed to vote," said Leach. After the votes are cast, Leach said the ballots are transported to several locations before being counted. "If they are still awaiting trial, they are allowed to vote. Those ballots are then brought down here to our office. They are then sent out to their original [home precinct] polling place," said Leach. Because the ballots are counted by election judges at precinct polling places outside the jail, it's impossible to tell how many votes any of the presidential candidates received from the inmates. All told, Leach confirmed that about 1,900 jail inmates voted in the federal election in Chicago, exceeding the prisoner estimate noted in the October memo by O'Sullivan. Voter eligibility among Cook County Jail inmates is relatively low compared with voter turnout among non-incarcerated voters, with about 15 percent of the jail population casting ballots last year. Nationally, voter participation in presidential elections has hovered around 50% over the last two elections. The county jail averages between 10,500 and 11,000 prisoners on any given day, according to Cook County Sheriff's Department spokesman Bill Cunningham. The jail is designed to hold just under 10,000 inmates. The issue of prisoner voting blossomed into an issue following the contested recount of presidential ballots in Florida after last November's election, with allegations surfacing that convicted felons voted for then-Vice President Al Gore. In some cases around the country, it is illegal for felons to vote, even after they have served their entire sentence. But Leach said that's not the case here. "Every state is different in regard to their laws for felons," said Leach, observing that in Illinois, felons may vote after serving their sentence. However, felons are prohibited from running for certain elected offices in Chicago, such as mayor or alderman. The concerted voter registration drive and establishment of polling places at the jail stand in contrast to the treatment afforded military and overseas voters, who do not receive the same kind of outreach from city election officials. "We don't get the large numbers that we do at the jail, but we do get several hundred," absentee requests from military voters and Chicago residents temporarily overseas, Leach said. Conservatives who are active in the election and government reform movement in Chicago were taken aback by the board's courting of the inmate vote and believe it is undertaken for political reasons. "The board's creation of an aggressive absentee ballot program in the Cook County Jail, absent any credible attempt to promote absentee balloting among the thousands of law-abiding citizens out of the country for military duty, business, or vacation, lends new meaning to the concept of `captive Democratic voter constituency,'" said Joe Wiegand, executive director of the Family Taxpayers Network, a local conservative group probing voting policies in Chicago. "This isn't illegal, but it is sleazy," said Wiegand. ================================================================ Kadosh, Kadosh, Kadosh, YHVH, TZEVAOT FROM THE DESK OF: *Michael Spitzer* <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> The Best Way To Destroy Enemies Is To Change Them To Friends ================================================================ <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/";>www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. 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