Dupage Policy Journal

Former DuPage County Auditor Bob Grogan’s cries of unfairness have earned  him a full recount in his dogged effort win back the seat he once held.

“I think this is a first in DuPage County,” Grogan posted on Facebook. “The court has ordered a full countywide recount for my race. We found hundreds of ballots that contained no election judges’ initials, which invalidates them. Not addressed in this ruling, but we will certainly be looking into why there are +1600 more ballots than people who voted.”

Grogan lost his re-election bid to Democrat William White by those 75 votes (233,121 to 233,046). Five people have been charged in the area with voting on behalf of dead people in the November general election.

“The judge ruled 'if the 436 ballots at issue are declared defective and not counted, petitioner would net 82 votes, which exceeds opponent’s 75-vote victory margin and would swing the election results in the petitioner’s favor.'”

Even after White was sworn in on Dec. 1, Grogan filed suit seeking a full recount. His court filing comes after he first filed a petition in DuPage against White and County Clerk Jean Kaczmarek, requesting that he be declared the winner based on “irregularities” he alleges including election judges not initialing ballots and more ballots being cast than the number of people who voted.

No matter what, Grogan argues it’s clear that the system needs changes.

“The thing is, the way the rules are it’s so hard to remove people from voter rolls you open yourself up,” he said. “My gut (feeling) is there is a lot of little fraud. We found a lot of ballots that didn’t have judges' initials, which makes you suspicious. We asked for a list of everybody that voted and it was over 1,600 less than the ballots cast.”