Dupage Policy Journal

A Wheaton woman now faces multiple charges of election fraud stemming from the 2021 municipal election.

DuPage County State’s Attorney Robert Berlin recently announced formal charges against Susan Cain that include three counts of forgery and four counts of perjury in election code, all Class 3 felony offenses. Berlin said his office was moved to action after delving into more than 30 potential fraud cases going back to the 2020 General Election.

The charges against Cain represent the sixth ongoing investigation. Earlier this month, Judge Michael Fleming issued a $1,000 personal recognizance arrest warrant for Cain, who turned herself in to the DuPage County Sheriff’s Office roughly 48 hours later.

“I commend DuPage County Clerk Jean Kaczmarek and her staff for their efforts in uncovering these alleged violations and bringing them to our attention,” Berlin said in a press release.

Cain is specifically charged with completing online vote-by-mail applications using the name of other area residents on at least four occasions. In addition, the 64-year-old is further accused of signing the names of three of those residents on the ballot envelope prior to the ballots being mailed.

“Fair and free elections are the bedrock of a functioning democracy,” Berlin said. “While the six cases charged represent an extremely small fraction of all votes cast, to ensure the integrity of the election process, it is important that we investigate anyone suspected with interfering in our elections and file charges where appropriate.”

Cain’s next court appearance is scheduled for July 26.

The case comes after former DuPage County Auditor Bob Grogan warned that the state’s voting system is ripe for fraud.

“The way we have our rules set up, it's open season for people to do those things,” Grogan told the DuPage Policy Journal after he was declared the loser to Democrat William White in his re-election bid by 75 votes and ultimately moved to file for a full recount.

Five people have now been charged in the area with voting on behalf of dead people in the November general election. Grogan filed his suit even though White has been sworn in and after he initially filed a petition in DuPage 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.

 “I would have no doubt that there are more than 75 people who now live someplace else that voted in this election in DuPage County and they shouldn’t have,” he said. “My gut (feeling) is there is a lot of little fraud. We asked for a list of everybody that voted and it was over 1,600 less than the ballots cast.”