llinois Elections Clerk Admits Destroying Ballots

The clerk in Alexander County, Illinois, said she destroyed all of the ballots from the 2002 election shortly before she received a Freedom of Information Act request to allow examination of several hundred questionable votes. Gloria Patton said she could not honor the Freedom of Information Act request filed Sept. 7 by Scripps Howard News Service to produce 3,451 punch-card ballots cast in the Nov. 5, 2002, gubernatorial election. The wire service is investigating ballots cast in Alexander County that did not register votes for the offices of governor, U.S. senator and Illinois attorney general. "We removed everything," Patton said Thursday. Patton said the ballots were discarded from her storage room in the Alexander County Courthouse in late August to "clean up back here because they were going to do air conditioning in here." She said ballots from elections held in 1999, 2001 and 2002 were discarded at that time. Federal law requires every "officer of election" in the United States to retain voting records for at least 22 months. By Illinois statute, county clerks are designated as the election official obligated to preserve ballots. [more ]