County Updates

The is post has a few updates related to County government prior to last night's County Board meeting (separate post available here). In this post:

• County Clerk information on a local non-citizen voter due to a Secretary of State error
• Highlights from the February Champaign County Reentry Council Meeting
• State's Attorney's office receives part of a civil forfeiture to its funds

County Clerk Updates:

The Illinois Secretary of State's office had notified the public of a corrected error in the automatic registration system last month. The ramifications were still being determined at that time, including concerns about possible voting by ineligible voters. One of those concerns played out here locally. From WCIA last week:

In an email to WCIA, the Champaign County Clerk’s office said it learned through the State Board of Elections that one non-citizen voted in the general election. In January, County Clerk Aaron Ammons told WCIA seven people believed to be non-citizens had been automatically registered. Of that group, three cast ballots – two in the 2018 general election and one in the 2006 general election.

Chief Deputy Clerk Angela Patton said those voters were removed from the system. Ammons’ office sent letters to confirm their citizenship and haven’t heard back from any of them as of yet. One of the voters had moved to Douglas County, so the Douglas County Clerk’s office is handling that particular case.

Full blurb here. with an update on Douglas County removing the person in their jurisdiction from the voter rolls.

WAND had a video segment and short article on early voting in Champaign County that started last week here.

The corrected generic specimen ballots from a previous post may have an order error for presidential primary candidates passed down from the State Board of Elections. From the News-Gazette Tuesday:

Champaign County Clerk Aaron Ammons said his office has changed the ballot order for one race to reflect a correction made by the Illinois State Board of Elections.

The board notified the county clerk’s office Friday that it had incorrectly listed the ballot order of people running to be delegates to the Democratic National Convention, he said. “This affected approximately 100 people. All candidates were/ are on your ballot and running for the correct office,” Ammons said. “The mistake was the order in which the people running to be delegates to the Democratic National Convention, from the 13th and 15th Congressional districts, appeared on the ballot.”

Nobody was disenfranchised by the error, no votes are in jeopardy, nobody missed the opportunity to vote for the candidate of choice and all votes will be counted fairly and accurately, Ammons said.

Full blurb available here from the News-Gazette eEdition here (subscription). The local Republican Party tried to put the responsibility of the error on the local County Clerk when they highlighted it on this same blurb on their facebook page. Local progressives pointed to the State Board of Elections who had done the correction.

The issue appears to be simply one of order on the ballot for that particular race, so the corrected sample ballots printed in the paper last week are correct beyond that. The County Clerk has a request tool link for people to request their own specific sample ballot here.

Champaign County Reentry Council 2/5:

The February Reentry Council meeting (what is this?) included overviews of many of the jail programs highlighted in the recent Sheriff's annual report here. Some recent short term trends in reentry resources needed have focused on medical benefits and needs. Housing tends to have been the more dominant need previously. 

Transportation needs and looking towards public transportation options for various service providers was discussed. There are efforts to look into a reliable transportation option, funding and collaboration ideas to make it easy to connect people to that option.

REAL ID continues to be a challenge, not just to those struggling to get the proper documents in reentry, but even among service providers in the personal lives. People who get paperwork together and organized for other people as part of their job are having to make multiple visits and struggle with confusing requirements and explanations for their own personal needs. There was a suggestion towards collaborating with the Secretary of State's office to get a better understanding and working relationship to make the process manageable for reentry service providers.

There was also a very good explanation of the funding and referral organization for the local reentry programs from the County's Mental Health Board and County Government. Specifically there was an explanation by Mark Driscoll of the MHB on how that funding goes to programs for different clients and situations. Because a lot of the funding for programs like these come from grants and can have specific requirements, the perspective from the funding side can be very different than for someone going through the criminal justice system itself. Ideally a person going through the criminal justice system will only have to worry about getting connected to the resources they need.

A better breakdown of the funding side of the County's work in reentry will likely be the topic of its own Cheat Sheet later.

State's Attorney and Civil Forfeiture:

In a unique bit of budget news for a County office, the State's Attorney is getting some funds from a civil forfeiture. From the News-Gazette last week:

A police stop of a tractor-trailer truck in Champaign County about three months ago has resulted in a bit of a windfall for Illinois State Police and the Champaign County state’s attorney’s office.
Judge Ronda Holliman has ordered that the rig and $658,030 found in it on Nov. 4 be forfeited to authorities after no one claimed the vehicle or the cash, both believed tied to sinister activity...

The law concerning forfeitures spells out that the state’s attorney’s office in the county where the seizure happened gets 12.5 percent of the proceeds. The Illinois office of the State’s Attorney Appellate Prosecutor gets 12.5 percent, the seizing agency gets 65 percent, and the Illinois State Police get 10 percent for administrative fees.

In this case, that means state police will net $493,522, and the Champaign County state’s attorney and the state appellate prosecutor offices will receive $82,254 each. Still to come will be the proceeds from the sale of the truck-trailer rig.

That full article here with more information on the stop incident and the civil forfeiture process.