Progress Illinois

Throughout the fall, Republicans claimed that nation’s election process was being compromised by coordinated, large-scale voter registration fraud campaigns. In Lake County, Illinois, the story of Princess the Goldfish prompted Republican County Clerk Willard Helander to file a lawsuit asking for 5,000 early voting ballots to go through background checks because of a mishap by D.C.-based group attempting to boost voter registration. At one point, she even suggested that the county might institute a de facto voter ID law in certain precincts. North Shore Rep. Mark joined the chorus, claiming that “massive voter fraud” would occur on Election Day.

Across the border, a Republican member of the Lake County, Indiana Board of Elections raised similar concerns, identifying errors in 5,000 registrations submitted by individual canvassers for the community organizing group ACORN. In both cases, misinformed media reports elevated the critiques. The furor was capped off when John McCain called ACORN “a threat to our democracy” during one of the presidential debates.

As it turns out, absolutely no voter fraud was detected in either county. That’s because voter fraud is a largely nonexistent issue. The real problem isn’t that ineligible individuals are making it into the voting booth—it’s that too many perfectly legitimate voters still face roadblocks to actually casting a ballot.

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Back in September, when we wrote about Lake Co. Sheriff Mark Curran's escalating deportation efforts, a commenter left this note:

Curran somewhere along the line became a republican. No one is going to support him for re-election.

"Somewhere along the line," indeed.  Today, Curran announced that he's switched parties and officially joined the Republicans, citing the Democratic Party's record on "positions on immigration, charter-school funding and other issues." 

Wonder what Jim Edgar thinks about his party's newest member?

More bad news emerged on the Illinois foreclosure front today. The number of homeowners slapped with bank repossessions, foreclosure, default or auction sale notices came to 12,681 in October -- a 24 percent increase from September and a 31 percent increase over the same month last year.

Homeowners in Cook County fared the worst. They made up more than half of the total foreclosure filings in the Prairie State. From the Sun-Times:

Some 6,885 homes received foreclosure notices in Cook County, representing one in every 313 homes. In Will County, the number was 990 homes, or 1 in every 226 homes. In DuPage County, the number was 807 homes, or one in every 441, and in Lake County it was 815 homes, or one in every 307 homes.

For more on what certain banks are doing to stem the tide of foreclosures -- here in Illinois and nationwide -- check out this post from yesterday.

As Josh noted yesterday, the most dramatic change in the Illinois presidential map between 2004 and 2008 is the blue-ing of the collar counties. Solid Bush terrain four years ago, every single county swung for Barack Obama on Tuesday.

Here's a data comparison (click "Sheet 2" to see the popular vote margins):

A few things seem fairly obvious from the returns Tuesday night. The first is that the "Emerging Democratic Majority" -- which started to develop in the 1990s but was stunted by Sept. 11 -- appears to have arrived. The New Republic's John Judis explains in his sharp election analysis published Wednesday:

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Illinois Republicans' questionable effort to segregate 5,000 ballots in north suburban Lake County hit a wall yesterday.  A federal court remanded the case back to the county late last week and a circuit court judge then declined to take it up before Election Day:

On Monday, the issue wasn't brought up in a courtroom, essentially allowing the targeted would-be voters to cast ballots - and have those ballots counted - unhindered.

The suit has not been withdrawn, Illinois GOP spokesman Lance Trover said.

"We're still reviewing our legal options," he said.

If Dan Seals squeaks out a win today -- within a 5,000 vote margin, for instance -- expect the GOP to challenge the results.  Speaking of which, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee is still raising money -- "this time so that it can afford to contest the results of any House elections it deems were adversely affected by fraud or irregularities," according to Roll Call.

By filing a lawsuit alleging systemic voter registration fraud, Republicans in north suburban Lake County are hoping to exclude thousands of new voters from the Election Day count. The GOP is asking the circuit court to isolate 5,000 allegedly "compromised" registrations submitted by an employee of SEIU Illinois (which sponsors this website). Under their plan, individuals in this batch of forms would be issued provisional ballots, which are only counted after the clerk has verified that the underlying registrations are valid. If that sounds like an adequate compromise, Ohio's experience with provisional ballots should give you pause.

In an article yesterday, The New York Times' Ian Urbina reported how Ohio was one of a small minority of states that increased the percentage of provisional ballots issued to voters in 2004 and 2006. That total is expected to jump again Tuesday, because "many newly registered voters may bring the wrong form of identification to the polls, failing to comply with the state’s new voter law that requires all voters to show government-issued identification or an approved document with a voter’s name and address." If the presidential race is close in the state, problems will inevitably ensue.

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Lake County Sheriff Mark Curran has sent a shock wave through an already fearful immigrant community by announcing that he intends to step up measures to have undocumented people deported. By releasing the outcomes of internal audit of the county's prison population - which revealed that roughly 20 percent of inmates are foreign born - Curran expressed hope that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) will give priority to the county's application for "287(g)" status.

That designation would allow local authorities who are investigating violent crimes, human smuggling, gang activity, sex offenses, drug smuggling, or money laundering cases to initiate the deportation process typically handled by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). So far, 50 municipalities across the country have been awarded the status. While Waukegan and Carpentersville have also applied, Lake County is hoping to become the first here in Illinois.

The audit findings were presented with a jarring message from Curran who said he's ready to put an end to "the terror inflicted by many of these illegal aliens," which he blamed, in part, on Mayor Daley and Cook County officials who have advised local authorities to stay out of immigration issues. After interviewing a majority of Lake County's 137 foreign-born inmates, federal authorities found that only 75 had committed offenses or had an immigration status that was relevant under 287(g).

"Sheriff Curran is lumping together murderers and people who were caught driving without a license ... That concerns me," said Joshua Hoyt, executive director of the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights. "He's messaging that all immigrants are dangerous and waste taxpayer money."

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With county-level party conventions over and local party leaders elected, media have been surveying the local political landscape for the coming year. And the Democratic prospects look good.

Much has been made over Bill Foster’s impressive victory in the formerly conservative 14th Congressional District. But the GOP also appears to be in decline elsewhere. For instance, in McHenry County, the Democrats have been greatly strengthened by population growth and enthusiasm over the presidential primary. The Chicago Tribune reports:

Not only are more Democrats filing to run for local offices, but for the first time in the memory of Republican County Clerk Kathy Schultz, more county residents voted in the Democratic primary last month than in the Republican.

Meanwhile, Dems have been slowly chipping away at the once mighty GOP establishment in far north Lake Conty. According to the Daily Herald, local GOP members are nervous about losing their 26th District state Senate seat and are aiming to reverse previous losses in county positions:

Republican Michael Oster, a physician, is challenging first-term incumbent Richard Keller, also a physician, for the coroner’s job. The office is one of several countywide posts Democrats have seized in recent years as they’ve slowly eroded the Republican Party’s power base in Lake County.

Stories like these are great news for Illinois Democrats. What remains to be seen is how county-level Dems will translate the possibly fleeting enthusiasm over the presidential race into long-lasting political involvement.