Chicago City Wire

The Chicago Board of Election Commissioners has sent out a flyer offering "permanent vote by mail."

The letter notifies Chicagoans of their right to vote by mail but adds a twist. 

"You may also apply to be included in the permanent vote by mail roster online or by using the form below," the letter sent to voters states along with the voter registration number, precinct and ward where the voter resides. "Choosing to be in the roster means that you will automatically receive your vote by mail ballot for every election, including the June 28, 2022 primary election." 

Voter fraud is not the stuff of fiction, as some would make it out to be in the wake of former President Donald Trump’s protests over election fraud in 2020. Vote by mail has a history tied to questionable practices and even abuses in the most recent election cycles. Locally, former DuPage County Auditor Bob Grogan notably was granted a partial recount — which he recently lost — after the 2020 election in which his election day lead shrank and was eventually snuffed out after Democrat absentee ballots started filtering in. Grogan only lost by 75 votes, some of which were overturned on a recount, but not enough to give him back the seat. 

“I lost originally by 75 votes (0.02%) and the court threw out upon review almost 1,000 votes (that was after denying us the ability to recount vote by mail ballots) and we found more than 80 ballots lost amongst the vote by mail envelopes,” Grogan posted on Facebook.

State Attorney Bob Berlin investigated the election in which he has turned up several instances of alleged voter fraud.

The Chicago Board of Election Commissioners was sued by Illinois Republicans for allegations that change in the elections allow for questionable practices. The minority party fought against efforts to expand mail-in voting in 2020. In a lawsuit, the state’s Republicans said changes to election law allowed “vote harvesting” of mail-in ballots, such as that allegedly occurred in Grogan’s race. Cook County Clerk Karen Yarbrough and members of the State Board of Elections were included in the suit.

Just one presidential election cycle earlier, in 2016, Republican operatives in North Carolina were caught harvesting absentee ballots. The result was the overturning of a congressional seat. 

Chicago has a long history of vote manipulation and outright fraud. In 1960, former President John F. Kennedy won Illinois by only 9,000 votes, with apparently historic numbers of votes in Chicago, including the names of the dead. 

"Charges focused on Cook County (specifically Chicago) where Kennedy had won by a suspiciously overwhelming 450,000 votes," Slate reports. 

The New York University Libraries has compiled historic journalism on Chicago's history of voter fraud.  In the 1972 election cycle, 37 people in Chicago were indicted for vote fixing, which was during now-indicted former Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan’s second year in office.