Mark Shelden | File photo
Mark Shelden | File photo
George Weckbacher says his drive to bring fairer elections to Illinois is facing some of its greatest resistance here in Cook County.
“The County of Cook has almost refused everything that I’ve wanted,” Weckbacher told the North Cook News, adding that county officials have refused to file Freedom of Information Act requests. “They’ve basically given me nothing but an explanation of 'it’s not eligible.'”
Weckbacher’s efforts come at a time when Champaign County Recorder of Deeds Mark Shelden recently shared he knows voting machine tabulations are open to mistakes, manipulation and in the wrong hands, outright fraud.
Shelden would know as well as anyone, having overseen more than 20 elections in his 14 years at the helm, which included the job of purchasing voting machines from Nebraska-based Election Systems & Software (ES&S), the largest player in the industry.
“I think ES&S's equipment is excellent, but in the wrong hands, it's subject to fraud,” Shelden told the Chambana Sun.
Those warnings aside, Weckbacher doesn’t expect the job of getting answers from Cook County to become any easier.
“The issue with trying to get Cook County to release their information is you have to have it arbitrated by the attorney general,” he said. “I’m at the point now where I may have to write a certified letter to the attorney general where I don’t miss my 60-day cutoff,” he said.
A resident of Lake County, Weckbacher spoke to the Illinois State Board of Elections on June 14 on the issue of bringing more integrity to voting.
Alerts Sign-up