Village officials take over elections from Board of elections

We have very serious concerns about the village for the first time since ? taking the election process away from our County board of elections. This year the village is running it's own elections and where this may be legal and yes other villages do it, there is grave concern with why it was done, and how it's being conducted. First the reason; It was put to the public not for discussion but rather in a newspaper article to which village officials stated they are going to conduct the elections for $500 as opposed to the $1000 B.O.E. cost. The first falacy is that it should be known the village has only paid the county $1000 in the last 2 years not 1, therefore they've only paid $500 per election to begin with. Number two is that diminishing the integrity of our election process, one of the most important and fundamental rights of our citizens, all to save a few bucks is wrong; Once again the validity of the statements they make must be questioned. A review of the budget shows that they allocated $750 for elections not $500! Futhermore, they are going to do this election with papers ballots as opposed to a machine. This is outrageous. Why would we want to sacrifice the security of using some of the best machines in the country and regress to using papers ballots like decades ago. People in the community hearing of this have been shocked. They are attempting to do this election with the least secure method of voting and no oversight. Where other villages do their own elections, we are presently the only village in the county that is not going to use a machine, and the only village that is not reporting to the B.O.E. 

And there's more; because the village is running the election, the clerk becomes by default the election inspector, unlike the B.O.E. where there is a check and balance having 2 commissioners. The clerk should be impartial but is clearly not, simply the fact that she has a vested interest in the outcome for the benefit of her own position. In addition, the clerk has circulated election petitions with and for the mayor in village hall. This is not only an unethical misuse of our government facilities for political purposes, but in addition shows a clear bias in that the clerk is working for one party.

Then there's the issue of the other candidates petitions. It was brought to our attention that when Keeney and Mattison filed their petitions with the clerk she scrutinized names and addresses which is outside the purview of her authority. In addition she suggested that an entire page could be disqualified simply because an address on one line wasn't correct, (in her opinion) and such is inaccurate which she does or should know. In the end I guess that was ironed out but it certainly raises questions of either bias, incompetance, or both in this process.

One resident has reported that they were told by the clerk that they are learning as they go. This is certainly not the way to conduct such an important process.

2 other residents have just reported that they went to village hall for an absentee ballot in person before leaving for Florida and with only 16 days before the election they were still not available. So now we have at least 2 potentially     dis-enfranchised voters and there is another couple that will be leaving needing absentee ballots. Will they still not be prepared and this number increases to 4. Village elections are often close and could come down to this many votes.