REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON LEGISLATION,
INTERGOVERNMENTAL AND VETERANS RELATIONS
The Honorable,
The Board of Commissioners of
ATTENDANCE
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Present: |
Chairman Suffredin, Vice Chairman
Silvestri, Commissioners Beavers, Butler, Claypool, Collins, Daley, Goslin,
Maldonado, Moreno, Murphy, Peraica, Quigley, Schneider, Sims and Steele (16) |
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Absent: |
Commissioner Gorman (1) |
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Also Present: |
Hon. Abner
Mikva, Retired Judge; Hon. David Orr, Cook County Clerk; Mr. Lance Gough, Executive Director -
Chicago Board of Election Commissioners;
Mr. Langdon Neal, Chairman - |
Ladies and Gentlemen:
Your Committee on Legislation, Intergovernmental
and Veterans Relations of the Board of Commissioners of Cook County met
pursuant to notice on
Your Committee
has considered the following items and upon adoption of this report, the
recommendations are as follows:
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283409 |
RESOLUTION CALLING FOR A COMPREHENSIVE FORENSIC AUDIT OF ELECTION DAY EQUIPMENT AND PROCEDURES (PROPOSED
RESOLUTION). Submitting a Proposed
Resolution sponsored by Anthony J. Peraica, County Commissioner. PROPOSED RESOLUTION RESOLUTION CALLING FOR A COMPREHENSIVE FORENSIC AUDIT OF ELECTION DAY EQUIPMENT AND
PROCEDURES WHEREAS, the Cook County Board of
Commissioners has appropriated in excess of $50 million to purchase election
equipment from Sequoia Voting Systems for the 2006 elections; and WHEREAS, the Cook County Clerk and the Chicago Board of Election
Commissioners and their personnel have repeatedly assured members of this
body that the new equipment would function properly on election day, and that
measures had been implemented that would prevent future problems such as the
ones which occurred during the March 2006 primary election; and WHEREAS, the County Clerk bears the
ultimate responsibility for ensuring the integrity of elections conducted in
suburban Cook County and the Chicago Board of Election Commissioners bears
such responsibilities in Chicago; and WHEREAS, the election results from the
polling places were to be transmitted electronically to the WHEREAS, nearly
half of the suburban
results were not successfully or properly electronically transmitted from the
polling places and receiving stations and many boxes of ballots and
electronic data storage devices did not arrive downtown until after 1 a.m.
the day after the election; and WHEREAS, there have been many reports of
election judges, public employees and publicly contracted personnel deviating
from the prescribed procedures for the securing and transporting of election
materials; and WHEREAS, there have also been multiple
complaints from voters who used touch screen voting systems which repeatedly
malfunctioned and indicated and reported votes for the candidates different
from the ones selected by the voter. NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that the President and Board of
Commissioners of Cook County, Illinois do hereby call for a comprehensive
forensic audit of the performance of the November 7, 2006 General Election by
Sequoia Voting Systems, the Chicago Board of Election Commissioners, and the
Cook County Clerk’s Office; and BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that an impartial panel consisting of a federal
monitor, election judges and experts in fields which include, but are not
limited to computers, information technology, election law and procedures;
and BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, specifically that election lawyers Richard K. Means, Mathias W. DeLort, Burton S. Odelson,
Michael E. Lavelle and Better Government
Association director Jay Stewart shall be included among members of this
panel; and BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the cost of this
audit shall be divided evenly between Sequoia Voting Systems and the budget
of the Cook County Clerk’s Office. * Referred to the
Committee on Legislation, Intergovernmental and Veterans Relations on |
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283411 |
AN ORDINANCE FOR THE CREATION OF AN ELECTION INTEGRITY
COMMISSION (PROPOSED ORDINANCE).
Submitting a Proposed Ordinance sponsored by Elizabeth Ann Doody Gorman, County Commissioner. The following is a synopsis of the Proposed Ordinance: PROPOSED ORDINANCE AN ORDINANCE FOR THE CREATION OF AN ELECTION INTEGRITY COMMISSION WHEREAS, approximately 24 million dollars
was appropriated for the Cook County Clerk to obtain two new electronic
voting systems to improve the conduct of our elections; and WHEREAS, two elections have now been held
using these new electronic voting systems; and WHEREAS, these two elections have been
fraught with events that are indicative of mishaps or more in the conduct of
the election in general and particularly with regard to the two new
electronic voting systems; and WHEREAS, the public notoriety given to
these mishaps occurring before, during and after the General Election held in
Cook County on Tuesday, November 7, 2006 has raised grave concerns among the
voters and candidates as to whether these elections were fair and honest; and WHEREAS, the Cook County Board of
Commissioners appropriates funding for the conduct of these elections and has
an obligation to the taxpayers of Cook County to ensure that the funds
appropriated are expended prudently; and WHEREAS, it is essential that the Cook
County Board undertake an inquiry into the propriety of the expenditure of
these appropriations with regard to the question of whether the General
Election of November 7, 2006 resulted in, among other questions, the new
electronic voting systems allowing each voter to vote for the candidate and
public policy issues of his/her choice and whether these systems allowed the
votes to be correctly counted in the precincts and reported to the County
Clerk. NOW, THEREFORE, BE
IT ORDAINED BY THE BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS OF Sec. 22-34. Election Integrity Commission. 1. A
Cook County Election Integrity Commission be
created. 2. The Integrity Commission shall be
comprised of five members selected as follows: 3. The
purpose of the Integrity Commission shall be to: Effective Date.
This Ordinance shall be effective immediately upon its adoption. * Referred to the
Committee on Legislation, Intergovernmental and Veterans Relations on |
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283678 |
SCHEDULING A HEARING OF THE
COMMITTEE ON LEGISLATION, INTERGOVERNMENTAL & VETERANS RELATIONS TO
REVIEW THE FINDINGS OF THE MIKVA PANEL REGARDING THE NOVEMBER 7, 2006 GENERAL
ELECTION (PROPOSED RESOLUTION).
Submitting a Proposed Resolution, sponsored by Larry Suffredin, PROPOSED
RESOLUTION WHEREAS, the November 7, 2006 general
election was the second time Cook County used Sequoia touch screen and
optical scan voting machines; and WHEREAS, the Chicago Sun Times reported that 1,500 complaints with the new
machines were logged with the office of Cook County Clerk David Orr on Election
Day; and WHEREAS, Cook County Clerk David Orr
appointed Honorable Abner Mikva
to head a technical review panel to investigate such complaints; and WHEREAS, the technical review panel
includes Xiaoping Jia, Director of the Department
of Software Engineering, School of Computer Science, Telecommunications, and
Information Systems at DePaul University; V.N. Venkatakrishnan,
an assistant professor in computer science at the University of Illinois
Chicago; Tricha Anjali,
an assistant professor with Illinois Institute of Technology’s Department of
Electrical and Computer Engineering; Ian Robertson, Senior Director of Global
IT – Americas for the William Wrigley Corporation; and Cyrus Walker, program
coordinator for Wilbur Wright College’s Department of Computer Security and
Forensic Investigation; and WHEREAS, the report of the technical
review panel will be available before NOW, THEREFORE, BE
IT RESOLVED, that
a hearing of the Committee on Legislation, Intergovernmental and Veterans Relations
will be held at 1:30 p.m. on January 9, 2007 to review the findings of the Mikva panel concerning recreating the election night
“logjam” of data that was transmitted to the office of the County Clerk;
simulating the transmission of data from the 2,370 precincts to the office of
the County Clerk; simulating the wireless transmission of data from the
remote sites in suburban Cook County; analyzing thousands of log records; and
other issues of relevance. * Referred to the
Committee on Legislation, Intergovernmental and Veterans Relations on |
Chairman Suffredin called the meeting to order and noted
that no votes would be taken today. He stated that the purpose of today’s
meeting was to primarily deal with Communication #283678, which is a resolution
regarding the review of the findings of the Mikva
Panel, a technical advisory committee established by County Clerk David Orr to
review portions of the November 7, 2006 general election.
Chairman Suffredin introduced Langdon Neal - Chairman
of the Chicago Board of Election Commissioners, and Lance Gough – Executive
Director of the Chicago Board of Election Commissioners. Chairman Suffredin explained that Mr. Neal
and Mr. Gough were attending the Committee meeting as observers, and that they
have comparable equipment and have been working very closely with Cook
County. Chairman Suffredin also
introduced Cook County Clerk David Orr and Judge Abner
Mikva, and then invited Clerk Orr to provide an
overview of the results of the Mikva Panel’s investigation.
Clerk Orr began by providing an
introduction to the related subject, explaining that like many governments
across the country,
Clerk Orr then introduced Judge Abner Mikva. Judge Mikva
described the composition of the panel, which was chaired by himself, and
included many technical advisors, including Ms. Tricha
Anjali, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Department of
Electrical and Computer Engineering, Illinois Institute of Technology; Mr. Xiaoping Jia, Ph.D, Director, Institute for Software Engineering, DePaul
University; Mr. Ian Robertson, Senior
Director of Global IT – Americas, William Wrigley Corporation and member of the
City of Chicago’s Mayor’s Council of Technology Advisors; Mr. Cyrus Walker, Founder & President,
Data Defenders Inc. and Department Head, Computer Forensics and Information
Security, Wilbur Wright College; and Mr.
V.N. Venkatakrishnan (Venkat),
Ph.D, Assistant Professor in Computer Science and
Co-Director, Center for Research and Instruction in Technologies for Electronic
Security, University of Illinois – Chicago. The panel was help staffed by Kevin McDermott (a
consultant for the Cook County Clerk) and Diamond Consulting (hired by Sequoia
but who worked in an independent fashion for the commission.) Judge Mikva stated
that the mission of the commission was to conduct highly complex testing to
identify what slowed down the results from the precincts to the central
counting location on election night. He
also stated that during the investigation, no questions or disputes were raised
about the integrity of the election.
Kevin McDermott went over the report detailing the findings
of the review panel (copy of which is available from the office of the
Secretary to the Board, along with accompanying press release dated January 9,
2007 from the Cook County Clerk,) and Clerk Orr stated the changes and
recommendations that will be implemented immediately as a result of the panel’s
findings.
Commissioner Daley asked Clerk Orr if there would be any
costs associated with the implementation of the recommendations.
Clerk Orr responded that costs related to the County’s
implementation would not be significant.
Many Commissioners (including
Commissioners Daley, Peraica,
Vice-Chairman Silvestri asked Langdon Neal, Chairman of the
Chicago Board of Elections, if the report findings were relevant to his agency,
and whether he agreed with the recommendations with respect to the City.
Mr. Neal responded affirmatively, and stated that the
analysis was very helpful to the Chicago Board of Elections.
Commissioner Murphy asked Clerk Orr about election judges,
and Clerk Orr responded that their office would like to expand the program
using teen judges. Currently, the law
provides that high school seniors can participate as an election judge, however, the Clerk’s office would like to include
high school juniors.
Commissioner Maldonado asked Lance Gough, Executive Director
of the Chicago Board of Elections, about the Chicago Board of Election’s
decision to download the early voting prior to the closing of the polls, as
opposed to the County’s decision to download poll and early voting tabulations
simultaneously.
Mr. Gough responded that they had determined that it would
take approximately four hours to download, so they chose to download prior to
Chairman Suffredin stated that further discussions will take
place on this subject at a later date.
He also stated that he will be introducing a resolution at the next
Board meeting that will create a special subcommittee on elections that
Commissioner Suffredin will chair (Commissioner Silvestri will be the Vice Chair.) The members of the subcommittee will be
Commissioners Suffredin, Silvestri, Sims, Murphy, Beavers, Gorman and
Peraica. It is expected that when this
subcommittee is created, the substantive proposed legislation related to
elections will be referred to it.
Public Speaker
1) George Blakemore, Concerned Citizen
Commissioner
Daley moved to adjourn the meeting, seconded by Vice Chairman Silvestri. The motion carried and the meeting was
adjourned.
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Respectfully submitted, Committee on Legislation, Intergovernmental and Veterans
Relations xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Larry Suffredin, Chairman |
Attest:
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Matthew B. DeLeon, Secretary
(The
complete audio recording of this meeting is available from the office of the
Secretary to the Board.)