By Ralph Padron
Ralph Padron presented information at the June 17 Public Services Committee meeting of the Kane County Board that he gathered through FOIAs from eight surrounding counties’ clerks regarding the 2020 General Election.
Padron’s report centered on examining Kane County and its surrounding counties’ ballot count integrity regarding vote-by-mail (mail-in) ballots.
“Needless to say,” Padron said, “I was stunned by the results given to me from Raymond Esquivel, the director of elections. I find it very difficult to believe that 2020 election had zero disqualifications from 85,034 ballots. In addition the 2018 and 2016 election had zero, thus a pattern was established.
The one-page chart indicates, the other seven surrounding counties had many disqualified ballots for the 2020 election. Most were negated for no signature, witness signature missing, signature not matching signature on record, and/or ballots not received on time.
Upon studying the results, the FOIA information generates several additional important questions which need to be answered:
• What were the procedures for examining and validating the mail-in ballots?
• What documentation is available to confirm that these procedures were followed?
• Who supervised this project and who approved the results?
• Were any election races affected by this discovery?
Padron added, “Since a pattern was established where every other county had many disqualified ballots but Kane County had none, I further wonder whether this major, obvious, discrepancy will be brought out publicly with an explanation.”
Padron’s professional credentials include the following applicable experience:
• Retired auditor, business manager with 25 + years.
• East Aurora School District 131, Aurora Township, Fox Valley Park District, and several private businesses.
• All audits resulted in thousands of dollars savings and exposed corrupt purchasing and hiring practices.
“It’s not what you believe to be true and accurate, but what you can prove that counts,” Padron said. All data was gathered through FOIAs sent to all counties.