Court Opinion

ID: 9732207
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 16:11:56.165251+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:23:12.149891
License: Public Domain

JUSTICE WELCH, dissenting: The majority remands this case so that an evidentiary hearing can be conducted to determine whether there was fraud in the electoral process. The majority then states that if the trial court finds fraud, the ballots should be excluded and a new election should be conducted. The majority states, however, that if the trial court does not find fraud, “case precedent suggests” that the 681 illegal ballots should be apportioned between the candidates “in the same percentages that they received in the initial canvass.” 316 111. App. 3d at 871. It is my belief, a belief shared by the trial court, that a new election is required because, due to the commingling of the legal and illegal ballots, apportionment cannot be performed without counting the illegal ballots. Counting the illegal ballots is contrary to Illinois law, is contrary to the agreement of the parties, and offends the integrity of this election. As apportionment in this case legitimizes the illegal ballots by essentially treating them in the same capacity as the legal ballots, I believe that apportionment is improper and that a new election is required to uphold the sanctity and integrity of this election. The parties agree that 681 of the 2,388 total ballots are illegal and should not be counted. The parties also agree that these 681 illegal ballots are commingled with the 1707 legal ballots and that there is no way to determine which ballots are the legal ballots and which ballots are the illegal ballots. In other words, due to the commingling of the legal and illegal ballots, the pool of total ballots has been permanently contaminated. The solution requested by defendant, and the alternative solution that the majority claims “case precedent suggests,” requires a counting of the 681 illegal ballots along with the 1,707 legal ballots (because there is no way to distinguish the legal from the illegal ballots) to determine what percentage of the vote went to each candidate. Then that percentage is multiplied by the 681 illegal ballots (which were counted to reach that percentage) to determine how many ballots are apportioned to each candidate. I believe that such a result is absurd in that it legitimizes the illegal ballots while diminishing the effect of the legal ballots. In McNabb v. Hamilton, 349 Ill. 209 (1932), our supreme court was very instructive in how to handle apportionment. The court was faced with a situation where there were several legal and illegal votes cast and some of the legal votes were commingled with the illegal votes. The supreme court was extremely careful not to count the illegal votes when determining what percentage of unidentifiable legal votes should be apportioned to each candidate. In McNabb, the total number of votes cast was 633. Seventeen votes were identified and rejected as defective, lowering the total to 616. Of these 616 votes, 325 votes were found to be legal and 291 were found to be illegal. Of the 325 legal votes, there was no difficulty in determining for whom 195 of these legal votes were cast. However, the remaining 130 legal votes were commingled with the 291 illegal votes so that it was impossible to determine from these remaining votes for whom the 130 legal votes were cast. The court then decided that the proper way to apportion these 130 legal votes was to calculate what percentage of votes each candidate obtained based on the 195 legally identifiable votes and then to apply that percentage to the 130 unidentifiable legal votes and apportion that number to the respective candidate. Most importantly, in McNabb, the supreme court derived this percentage by counting only the legally identifiable votes and did not derive the apportionment percentage by counting the contaminated pool of legal and illegal votes, like the majority in the instant case says “case precedent suggests.” Our supreme court has made clear that the apportionment of votes must be based on the number of legal votes cast. Thornton v. Gardner, 30 Ill. 2d 234, 235 (1964). Furthermore, where the illegal votes cannot be “segregated, proved, and exactly computed,” apportionment is not proper. Lehman v. Hill, 414 Ill. 173, 178-79 (1953). In Drolet v. Stentz, 83 Ill. App. 2d 202, 207 (1967), this court stated: “We cannot determine the number of legal votes cast for either party. We cannot apportion.” As I stated earlier and the majority notes in its opinion, both parties agree that the illegal ballots should not be counted. However, if an apportionment is performed in this case, the illegal ballots essentially will be counted because they are commingled with the legal ballots. I acknowledge that there appears to be some authority which does count illegal votes in determining how to apportion illegal votes (Webb v. Benton Consolidated High School District No. 103, 130 Ill. App. 2d 824 (1970)), but I believe that such a method runs contrary to the law in Illinois and wrongfully legitimizes the illegal votes by allowing the illegal votes to have an impact in the election. In conclusion, I agree with the trial court that apportionment is inappropriate in the instant case, and, therefore, I would affirm the judgment of the circuit court.