To the Editor:
Despite my reservations for using East St. Louis Board of Elections registration data, it is all that I have at this time.
They claim that we have 22,459 registered voters and this means that 14.4% of all registered voters used the absentee ballot. Looking closer, we see that 42.4% of all voters participating (7,649), or turnout, cast an absentee ballot.
Out of the rest of the county's 165,035 registered voters, only 3,636, or 2.2%, cast absentee ballots--nearly seven times lower than East St. Louis. County voter turnout was 26,439 and only 13.75% cast an absentee ballot compared to 42.4% for here—a 3 to 1 ratio.
Why is the absentee ballot so popular in East St. Louis? When combined with an election authority that is known for not removing dead people from the registration, it becomes rather clear that the dead are still voting in East St. Louis elections.
The re-election of our current mayor alone indicates that there is very little relationship between election results and voter sentiment.
The East St. Louis Alliance for Change has requested the assistance of Attorney General Lisa Madigan's office in enforcing compliance to current election code statutes by local election authorities like the East St. Louis Board of Elections.
Please help us by contacting the Illinois State's Attorney General's Office in Springfield (www.illinoisattorneygeneral.gov) to voice your support for accurate voter registration lists.
For more information on this issue, please go to www.alliance1820.com.
In advance, thank you for your support for the pursuit of freedom and democracy in East St. Louis, Egypt, and Libya.
Matt Hawkins, President
East St. Louis Alliance for Change