Only YOU can Prevent Voter Fraud.
Voter Fraud, Devine and Picket
The sequence of events came exactly in that order suggested by the title above. For related information click on one of the following links: Analysis of Data Received, Conclusions and Tables, Recommendations, View the Data/Reports.
Important Note:
For the last three Freedom of Information Act requests submitted to the Chicago Board of Elections Commissioners ("Board") relating to information about the Absentee Voters Application and Ballot envelopes, the Board has refused the request to hand over any data. What are the implications? Click on this link.
Background Information
After the Great Chicago Flood hit the Belmont-Cragin area, one thing emerged and that was the alderman who served the 29th Ward needed to be replaced. His name was Sam Burrell. A do nothing alderman that could care less about the north end of the 29th Ward, as is his counterpart, the current alderman Carothers. We affectionately call the latter the illegal alderman of the 29th Ward. You'll understand why after you read all this.
Before I became involved with any of the candidates I did my research. Carothers didn't have what I would call a clean background - nor did his dad, who served time in jail when he was the alderman. He was definitely not the one to help.
That time around I helped a lady who worked in the Department of Planning. Her name was Tyrus.
The Runoff Election
Nobody had enough votes to win so there was a runoff election. The two candidates that emerged were Carothers and Floyd Thomas.
During that period Wayne had the pleasure of meeting two people that were involved in politics and their names are Richard Barnett and Danny K. Davis. Davis, you might recall, is the Congressman.
After the election, Richard pointed out to Wayne that the 29th Ward traditionally had only 200-300 absentee votes. The first time Carothers ran, there were more than 1600; Carothers won by approximately 1,100 votes.
Freedom of Information Act Request Submitted
We filed a Freedom of Information Act request with the Board of Election Commissioners in Chicago to get the data and copies of the Absentee Ballot Applications and Ballot envelopes. From there Wayne built a database and started inputting data.
After more than 2400 hours of work, reports were generated that showed exactly were problems exists. This information was presented to the Board of Election Commissioners here in Chicago.
Meeting with Cook County States Attorney
A short time after all this work was done, Congressman Davis was visited by Wayne and Richard. He was asked to arrange a meeting with Devine(1) to go over the information that was discovered. This he did without reservation.
After about one month Wayne decided to start a picket at the south end of the Brickyard Mall. It was by the Railroad Crossing that he had picketed at before.
Thousands would see Wayne and blow their horns. Devine's office was flooded with calls. In fact, over the course of the 400 days that Wayne stood up for the people, Devine changed the name of the Voter Fraud Unit three times. We believe this was done to bury the fact that his office does nothing about Voter Fraud.
Devine wants info - Give it to him!
For many months Cook County State's Attorney Richard Devine's Office of Public Integrity (alias, the Public Integrity Unit) had been telling people to send any information relating to voter fraud. That's what they tell you when you call 869-6283.
Of course, hardly any people would know what constitutes evidence and the people at the Public Integrity Unit won't tell you that information. When you ask any questions regarding the voter fraud issue in the 29th Ward or 37th Ward, they provide you with a bunch of double talk that in essence, says nothing. In other words, you are left with no answers whatsoever. The usual slithering out of an answer to a direct question goes something like this:
If there is an investigation then we can't talk about it.
When you ask if there indeed is an investigation going on you are told, "we can't talk about that either."
Not even a burglar could have said that any better!
Since Devine's Office provides nothing but double talk, the Citizens for Community Action, Inc. decided to send over the original documentation that was received from the Chicago Board of Elections. Mind you, although we found over 5,500 errors, Devine's office did not find one! The Public Integrity Unit then sent back all the information to the Chicago Board of Elections. Here is the link to the data findings.
Let him have it!
So on Sunday, November 18, 2001 we emailed Devine's Office 645 pages that were scanned into the computer that consisted of the original data from the Chicago Board of Elections. We also faxed his office between 200 and 300 pages.
On Monday, November 19, 2001 we received a call from Angela saying that we cannot fax anything over anymore. It should be mailed. And, in typical bureaucratic fashion, she tried to snowball the conversation without letting Wayne A. Strnad have a word in edgewise. It didn't work! Strnad told her that the faxes were coming regardless of whether or not Devine wanted to have them. Devine's Office has been telling people to send in any information about the voter fraud issue. That we shall do and it shall be the original documents we received from the Chicago Board of Election Commissioners. Regarding the interference with the State's Attorney Business - well, it is his business to go after voter fraud so we consider it non-interference and merely providing valid evidence. We are not going to mail the documents either. In fact, the 645 pages referred to were not faxed but emailed. Strnad then went on to inform her that Devine's office is not going to just let this thing fall by the wayside. We are going to continue the faxing procedure until every piece of paper that we received from the Chicago Board of Election is faxed and/or emailed to his office! Devine is not going to bullshit his way out of this or do nothing until the statute of limitation expires.
They didn't like hearing that, I guess, because I used the word bullshit. Seems to imply that they never used the word themselves! Is that a crock or what?
Strnad then called 889-2963 to tell them that
the faxes were still coming. The young person on the other end said the same thing Angela
said. My reply was the
same as that to Angela but this time they hung up on me. We then emailed Devine the following letter:
Dear Devine,
Due to a phone call this morning we will forthwith state that the faxing of information will continue. We are not going to incur the costs of reproducing any documentation for your office when a fax is just as good. Should you ever decide to do your job and indeed investigate and come down with indictments then we will gladly pay for any reproduction costs. Until that time, enjoy the faxes and just for the fun of it, I might scan in the rest and then email it to you.
Have a nice day.
Sincerely,
Wayne A. Strnad
PS. By the way, hanging up on people I consider just flat out ignorant.
_______________
1. Devine is the first line of defense for the people.
He is the Cook County States Attorney. He is suppose to bring
to justice those that break the law. To bad there is nothing
in statutes to bring him to justice for not doing his job.
This homemade sign was joined at the center and bolted together with 3/4" plywood. At the joining of the wood it measured 1.5 inches thick.
One winter day the wind was so great that it pushed Wayne several feet forward and cracked this sign. Wayne quickly constructed another one for the next day.