Illinois citizens group files formal complaint with state Board of Elections

A couple from Illinois, Jodie and Ken Zitko, have formed a group of concerned citizens who have been analyzing the Illinois state voter database.  They have found serious irregularities, detailed in a formal complaint filed with Bernadette Matthews, director of the Illinois State Board of Elections on December 21.

Here are some of their findings after almost 2,000 hours of analysis.  

• There were over 300,000 votes from the 2020 election missing or deleted from the Illinois voter data prior to the conclusion of the federal retention period of 22 months.  
• Over a four-year period, Illinois population decreased by 150,000, while the voter roll increased by 650,000.  
• Over 2.5 million people had votes cast prior to their registration dates.  
• More than 230,000 registrations show seemingly Illegal or illogical registration dates.  
• There are more than 4 million apparent registration violations out of 8.9 million registrations.

This couple is not your ordinary pair of election sleuths.  Ken has been an MSSQL Data Analyst, DBA, and architect for 28 years, working with Fortune 50 companies, and Jodie has been working with “People Data” and analytics since the mid-’90s in large enterprise environments.  She’s a “subject matter expert” in integrated workplace management systems.  

They were able to view a copy of the Illinois State Board of Elections voter roll while working for a candidate for the U.S. Senate.  The couple also did an informal study of Illinois voting history, which began when they decided to check their own records.  They were shocked to find that their history showed votes cast in three midterm elections when they had never voted in a midterm election.  Ken did vote in the 2008 presidential election, but there was no indication of a vote.  

From April through June 2022, they were able to meet and sit down with over 1,300 Illinois residents across the state and — with their consent — reviewed their 20-year voting histories.  They uncovered over 57% irregularities, including  

• votes cast when voters did not vote, 
• votes missing when they did vote,
• voters registered and voting at addresses where they did not live, and
• registrations with illogical registration dates.

Most shocking of all, 11% of the voters they interviewed with had votes cast in their name for elections they did not participate in.  

Jodie explained how voters reacted to seeing obvious errors in their personal voting data.  “It was a fairly emotionally draining experience.  As reality set in, a number of people visibly trembled; a few shed a tear or two.  I recall one particular individual young man in his early 30s.  When we asked if he wanted his history report, he insisted he didn’t need to see it because he knew his history.  After watching several others receive their reports with shocking results, he finally asked to see his.  In his case, he had a missing vote from 2020.  He was so enraged that he turned beet red, stood there for about 30 minutes, repeatedly shaking his head in disbelief.  I think he said an expletive or two.”  

In July of 2022, they learned about New York Citizens Audit, a similar group of concerned citizens examining voter rolls.  They connected with NYCA CEO Marly Hornik and her data team.  In the late spring of 2023, they joined with the New York organization and spent an additional 2,500 hours researching Illinois data.  Since then, Hornik has formed a national group, United Sovereign Americans, and is working with more than 25 other states on election validity.  

The Illinois team has been making presentations of its data to towns and county election boards across the state, asking elected officials to sign their resolution.  They also plan to file a federal lawsuit.  The Illinois chapter of United Sovereign Americans is looking for volunteers in every county of the state who want to get involved in fixing our elections.  

For more information, email correspondence: [email protected].

Jack Gleason is a conservative political writer.

Photo credit: M. Peterson.  Video credit, J.Zitko with permission.