An election ‘disaster’ was averted in DeKalb County this spring, clerk says

SYCAMORE – DeKalb County Clerk and Recorder Tasha Sims said her office avoided disaster after being notified of a ballot error less than a month before the April 1 consolidated election.

After mail-in ballots had been sent, a Lee resident informed the DeKalb County Clerk and Recorder’s Office that a referendum question was missing on some ballots for Shabbona Fire Protection District voters.

“It very well could have been a disaster,” Sims said recently. “I understand how important that referendum was to them.”

The referendum, which passed with 230 votes in favor and 190 votes against, asked if the limiting rate under the property tax extension limitation law for the Shabbona Fire Protection District could be increased.

After learning of the ballot omissions, Sims said she looked through five different ballot styles for Shabbona’s Precinct No. 1 and confirmed that the referendum was missing from some ballots.

Within hours, Sims said, she and workers with election technology vendors Election Systems and Software and Platinum Technology added the missing referendum to the affected ballots, and they checked other precincts for additional discrepancies. That same day, Sims’ office printed new ballots to mail to voters who were affected.

“I wrote an apology letter, signed each one of those, explaining why they were getting another ballot,” Sims said.

According to a report Sims submitted to the DeKalb County Board on April 23, 43 voters received incorrect mail-in ballots that didn’t have the referendum listed. Of those voters, 29 returned their corrected ballots, one opted to vote in person on election day with a corrected ballot, and 13 did not cast a ballot.

Not everyone got the chance to cast a corrected ballot, however.

One Shabbona Fire Protection District voter, who cast an incorrect ballot at the Sycamore early-voting site, did not have an opportunity to vote on the referendum, according to Sims’ report.

In her report, Sims said that 44 out of the 65,461 registered voters in DeKalb County were affected by the ballot omission.

“While there could be a million excuses, I don’t want to give excuses,” Sims said. “[At the] end of the day, human errors occur, and that’s what happened with this. It was an oversight.”

William Heimbigner, a Lee County resident, came to the DeKalb County Board Committee of the Whole meeting May 14 to recognize Sims’ efforts to correct the errant ballots.

He was the one who called Sims’ office to report the ballot omission.

“Throughout this entire process, Tasha demonstrated unwavering transparency, impressive efficiency and genuine integrity,” Heimbigner said.

DeKalb County Board Chairman John Frieders, a Republican from District 12, said he thinks Sims did an “excellent job” of rectifying the error.

“Good job getting right on it, Tasha,” Frieders said. “It’s important, I will say, that you got it straightened out right away, and before it got out of hand.”