Dupage Policy Journal

The Chicago Tribune’s opinion piece about the investigation of Breakthrough Ideas, the policy group headed by former state Rep. Jeanne Ives (R-Wheaton), into the DuPage County’s voter rolls demonstrates how “inexcusably lazy and incurious” the paper is in its coverage of voting irregularities, Ives said in a statement.

In reference to former President Donald Trump, the Tribune characterized the group's findings that poor maintenance of the rolls could result in voter fraud as the “Big Lie” about the results of the 2020 General Elections.

“We suspect the Trumpian quest to seed doubt about the 2020 election results won’t die down anytime soon,” the Tribune’s Editorial Board wrote.

Yet in three press conferences Ives has held about the group’s findings, the former lawmaker pointed out in her statement that she never once mentioned Trump or echoed his claim that the election was stolen.

“Unsurprisingly, the Chicago Tribune mischaracterized the work and intentions of Breakthrough Ideas and me,” Ives said.

The Tribune cited earlier news coverage of an October 29 press conference where Ives provided an example of a voter who moved to Naples, Florida, but used an old DuPage County address to vote in 2020. The example illustrated one of the key findings of the investigation thus far, Ives said: 1,343 voters who had moved out of the county used their old county addresses to vote last November.

The Tribune story cited information from DuPage County Clerk Jean Kaczmarek’s office that the voter had updated his registration and voted legally in November 2020.

“In fact, voter lists from 12/3/2020 and 8/19/2021 obtained from the DuPage Clerk’s office show the opposite," Ives said. "For the voter in question, the DuPage Clerk did not update the address for the voter, instead showing him having voted from the same address of the home which was sold in March of 2020 and whose ownership is under a new name. The voter registration data also shows that the voter’s record was last updated 9/3/2010 – not July 2020.”

She added that “further investigation into the Florida election database indicates that on May 27, 2021 the voter we highlighted newly registered to vote in Collier County, Florida, the county where Naples is located.”

Ives said that the Tribune would make better use of its time using “its extensive resources” to conduct its own investigation into the accuracy of voter rolls and the integrity of election procedures. This includes questioning “rote responses from government officials when presented with compelling evidence that people possibly voted illegally.”