Champaign County Updates

This week had a lot of updates in the news related to Champaign County government. This post has links and coverage including:

• More Republican duplicate ballot concerns with the County Clerk's office.
• Housing Authority highlights that minimum wage growth isn't keeping up with housing costs.
• NOAA Weather Radio outage additional information.
• Champaign County Drug Court being re-certified.
• An overview of the State's Attorney's courtroom duties and restitution process.
• Update on the upcoming make-up Hazardous Waste Disposal event. 

Vote-by-Mail Duplicate Ballot Concerns:

Republicans have seized on social media reports that voters have been receiving duplicate Vote-by-Mail ballots. In the discussion on the facebook group, Spotted in Chambana, and the County Party's facebook post here, they also highlighted the ongoing delay in posting the generic specimen ballot. That sample ballot has since made available on the Clerk's website here. The primary complaint was the potential for multiple votes with the ballots and potential costs to the county. From WCIA yesterday:

It is Illinois law for every jurisdiction to report their early voting totals to the State Board of Elections. It is so others can cross check and make sure no one is registered in two different counties.

According to the state, Champaign County and Alexander County are the only ones who have not been recorded. The practice is part of a 2005 law that has those records available online for state and local political committees. Former County Clerk Mark Shelden remembers the procedure when he was in the office. He says when they talk about security measures, he is not sure why they have not taken care of this one...

Shelden brought up the scenario that right now, someone who has voted in Champaign County can register in another county and they would not be able to tell they already filled out a ballot. County Clerk Aaron Ammons declined to comment on the response from Republicans and the lack of early voting records with the state.

Full article here. The Republicans posted images of the reporting system and an explanation of their concerns here on the County Party's facebook account. On the Spotted in Chambana thread, County Board Member Mike Ingram weighed in on the duplicate ballot issue:

As one of the people who allocates money to the clerk's office, you better believe we're pissed off about this. There's a glitch in this old clerk website that will send out as many ballots as are requested, not catching doubles. Meaning if you forgot that you'd already requested and requested another, you'd get both. Or if you hit refresh or thought the page didn't load, it'll generate another. We're paying for a very expensive new website for the clerk and I can't wait for it to be done because everything we find out about it now is a problem. It's been patched together on an old system for years. Seems like security all checks out, but there's quirks like this everywhere.

Either way, only one ballot gets counted. These are all coded uniquely to the voter, so if a second one came back from you it would throw up an alert. I've been very curious about stuff like this and that part of the system is good, thankfully. Apparently this is a thing that has happened a few times in the past.

That comment link here with a lot of Q & A replies. The question remains if the additional concerns the Republicans are raising now allow the potential for multiple votes by the same person in some situations including or regardless of the duplicate ballots. The concerns appear speculative at this point, but I'm still waiting to get more information.

Housing Authority on Affordable Housing Crisis:

The Housing Authority of Champaign County (HACC) was in the news this week pointing out that the modest increases in Illinois' minimum wage aren't enough to make up for the increasing costs of housing. WAND had a basic overview and video segment:

On Tuesday, the Housing Authority of Champaign County held a panel to discuss affordable housing.

One of the main topics discussed was affordable housing and the barriers being faced in Champaign. Even though construction costs for housing developments are remaining stagnant, housing prices themselves continue to be on the rise.

Right now, the average person makes about $10 per hour, and in order to live in most apartments in Champaign, a person should be making close to $16 per hour.

That full article here. A bit more from the News-Gazette:

And while [Sheila Dodd, manager of the city of Urbana’s grants management department, has] been glad to see Illinois’ gradual increase in minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2025, Dodd said, she fears the cost of housing will continue to rise along with it.

Those burdened by unaffordable rents face difficult budget decisions, such as paying for housing or food, and can they afford health care, said Chad Hoffman, executive director of Habitat for Humanity of Champaign County...

While construction costs for new housing development are relatively stagnant, housing prices continue to rise and government regulations often unnecessarily inflate construction and housing rehab costs, according to the housing authority.

That full article here. The HACC had a brief description and photos on their facebook page here.

NOAA Weather Radio Outage Updates:

Today's web version of Tom's Mailbag has an additional item on the NOAA weather radio outage and the complications that led to it. The cabling for such a high power antenna appears to be one of the primary issues mentioned before, but it appears to go far beyond replacing the coaxial cable to your cable box:

"A year ago January during the high winds a section of the weather transmitter coax came loose. The copper from that coax became exposed and when it touched the tower it created a problem for DWS on full power. So quickly we got our tower crew up to patch up the coax and fix the broken standoffs that keep the coax from touching the live tower.  Unfortunately our fix while helping NOAA/NWS did not let us return to full power on a day in day out basis.

"So when severe weather season began I made the decision we’d limp through this situation until tornado season passed.

"We finally got an understanding with the NOAA contracts division that they had to be off the tower ahead of the 2020 severe weather season.  We found them a new site that the Lincoln office loved. Unfortunately the government played hardball on the contract terms with Sharad Tak, my former boss who owned WKIO from 1984 thru 2000. He still owns the tower site on Neil across from WCIA.

More at that full Mailbag article here. WCCU's recent update included a note about the timing involved:

Timing is everything because as we flip the calendar ahead another month, this 40-year-old technology needs to be up and running, ready for anything.

"Because we're entering a very critical time of the year with thunderstorm season approaching", Miller adds.

The National Weather Service says the NOAA Weather Radio Transmitter in Champaign covering East Central Illinois could be out of commission for the next six months.

That full article here.

Other Updates:

The News-Gazette had an article on the Champaign County Drug Court being certified by the State prior to Judge Ford's retirement here. It included some information on Ford's Successor:

Ford has already persuaded Presiding Judge Tom Difanis to have Judge Randy Rosenbaum be his successor in drug court.

It should be an easy transition for Rosenbaum, who has filled in as the drug court judge while Ford took care of medical issues.

Additionally, when Rosenbaum was Champaign County public defender prior to his 2016 appointment to the bench, he served as his office’s representative in drug court.

That full article here.

A couple recent Tom's Mailbag articles had information about the State's Attorney Office including on the Crime Victim Restitution process and the courtroom duties of our State's Attorney.

And finally there have been some updates on the Hazardous Waste disposal make-up event being run by the IEPA with the cooperation of local governments in Champaign County. The opportunity for those who signed up, but weren't able to participate due to delays at the last event have had their opportunity to sign up for this one first. Registration is now open to the general public. More information at the registration page here:

Another IEPA-sponsored one-day Household Hazardous Waste Collection Event in Champaign County will take place on Saturday, April 4, 2020 from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Market Place Mall (click this map link for exact drop-off location; you must use the designated Entrance on the day of the event!)  It is open to all Illinois residents; however, residents must register for an appointment in order to attend.  To prevent the long wait times experienced during the Oct 2019 event, the hazardous waste contractor for the collection will provide additional drop-off lines, more staff, and fewer residents will be registered in each time slot.

Previous Cheat Sheet coverage on the event here. Local coverage from WCIA on open slots here and from WCCU here.