State Rep. Paul Evans, R-O'Fallon, has filed legislation that, if approved, would let all St. Clair County voters decide the fate of the East St. Louis Board of Elections.
There already is an effort under way by an East St. Louis reform group that will let East St. Louis residents vote on dissolving the city's election authority. A St. Clair County judge last week approved the placement of a referendum on the March 20 ballot, allowing East St. Louis residents to vote on the issue.
But Evans' legislation, filed late last week, would allow a countywide referendum.
"This will allow a vote to take place in the entire county," Evans said. "My concern here was that there are tax dollars from everyone in this county flowing in to support the election authority. I believe since the residents of St. Clair County are being taxed, they should be entitled to have a say in it."
James Lewis, executive director of the East St. Louis Board of Elections, said Wednesday he had not yet seen the proposed legislation. He said he would want to review it and discuss it with fellow election board members before commenting.
Proponents of scrapping the city's election board argue it would save the city as much as $400,000 annually. Evans said county taxpayers subsidize the city's election board to the tune of about $110,000 per year, for administrative costs, salaries and benefits for employees.
If the city's election authority were dissolved, the St. Clair County Clerk's Office would handle elections in East St. Louis, as it does for every other part of the county.
Evans said the fall election of this year is probably the earliest that the issue could be on a countywide ballot.
He thinks the bill could be passed, despite the state House and Senate being Democrat-controlled.
"I think there is every day a greater realization and knowledge in the legislature that we've got to start saving costs," he said. "We've got to reduce the cost of government, and this is a prime example of a way that costs can be reduced without reducing services. That being said, I can't predict what the actual outcome will be."
Evans said long-standing allegations of fraud in East St. Louis elections were a factor in his decision to file the legislation.
"There is certainly a reputation of unfair elections, there is certainly knowledge of late-night absentee ballots being discovered, and there certainly is a reputation of votes and election results being altered by the results coming out of East St. Louis. And that's not good, for a cloud of suspicion to be hanging over any government entity," he said. "But the primary reason I did this was budgetary."
East St. Louis voters weren't kind to Evans in 2006, when he ran for a judgeship in St. Clair County and was defeated by Circuit Judge Lloyd Cueto. In that race, Evans carried the vote except for in predominantly-Democratic East St. Louis.
Only a handful of cities in Illinois have their own election authorities. Besides East St. Louis, they include Peoria, Chicago, Aurora, Rockford, Danville and Bloomington.
The bill is H.B. 4035.
