UPDATE 4/20/21 5 P.M.
Peoria County mayoral candidate Jim Montelongo says he will “file for the discovery recount that the law makes available to candidates in close races.”
Montelongo currently trails opponent Rita Ali by 43 votes for Peoria Mayor.
“[Montelongo’s] attorneys are also awaiting requested video footage from the Peoria Election Commission which has been promised by the Election Commission on Friday,” said a statement by Montelongo’s campaign.
Montelongo’s campaign said they are still concerned about the Election Commission’s “blatant refusal to keep records and count ballots in a manner mandated by statute.”
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***UPDATE*** 4/13/21 12 P.M.
Peoria County Elections Commission Executive Director Thomas Bride has issued the following statement in response to Montelongo:
“We are in compliance with election laws and the state board of election’s protocols. We are using the same process we have used in every other election for the last several years.
“The mail in ballots are sealed, bar-coded, kept in a locked room that has 24-hour surveillance, and only opened by election judges—one republican, one democrat.”
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PEORIA, Ill. — Lawyers for Peoria City Council Member and 2021 Mayoral candidate Jim Montelongo have penned a letter to the Peoria County State’s Attorney’s Office saying certain Illinois election laws have not been followed during the counting of mail-in ballots received in regard to the Apr. 6 election.
Attorney William W.P. Atkins told Jennie Cordis-Boswell poll watchers have told Montelongo “not… a single ballot” received since Apr. 6 has been enclosed in a large or carrier envelope along with a respective voter’s application to vote by mail by the Peoria County Election Commission.
Atkins proceeded to say law also says the person who handles a ballot is to seal and endorse the large or carrier envelope and, since none of the ballots have been placed into such an envelope, there’s been no sealing or endorsing. Instead, each ballot has merely been stamped as “received,” with the date it was received, on the outer envelope inside which it was received.
Finally, the attorney claimed the election commission Executive Director Thomas Bride acknowledged some mail-in ballots counted post-election day were, in fact, received on election day. Any mail-in ballots received by the close of polls on a given election day, Atkins said, are required to be counted that day.
Atkins said these issues were brought in-person to Bride’s attention, and Bride responded by raising his voice and stomping out of the room.
The only law that has been followed, according to Atkins, has been the ballots’ being secured in an office until counted.
Bride said he had no comment.
