Despite our best efforts to clean, or purge the voter registration list in East St. Louis, we were unsuccessful prior to the November election. For this, we apologize to all the people in St. Clair County who deserve fair elections.

Our efforts included a seven-month-long Freedom of Information lawsuit (12-MR-65), which was defeated on a technicality, but we are preparing to return to court on this matter and others. In short, I was representing myself, and because the request was submitted on letterhead I had to hire a lawyer.

In 2013, we plan to continue our pursuit of public voter information for the purpose of showing once and for all that thousands of extra voters remain registered illegally due to flawed purging. What is being done with those extra voters is yet to be proven but I am sure that most people, like me, can only imagine that it is nothing good.

We have also submitted affidavits requesting that more than 2,000 voters be purged due to their addresses being inaccurate. Of course, they rejected the affidavits without due legal process and we will be addressing this issue with the courts as well.

Last, I would like to thank the 3,012 courageous souls who voted with me to close the election board. Please do not despair or lose hope because we found inspiration in the election results and are looking to put the referenda back on the ballot.

Matt Hawkins

President Civic Alliance of East St. Louis