Frank Mautino – ISBE Members should be removed-Criminal Complaint filed

Illinois (ECWd) –

The State Board of Elections took the position during the Frank Mautino hearing on his campaign spending that there was no finding of a violation of the election code, only a finding that he did not do what the board told him to do, which they said was a willful violation and they fined him a whopping $5,000.00.   We covered those events in this article.

As an example of how bad things are in Illinois we only have to turn to the Election Code, which the State Board of Elections is supposed to not only know but enforce when it comes to cases before it.

How bad is it? 

Failure To Comply With Order Of An Election Authority

(10 ILCS 5/29-11) (from Ch. 46, par. 29-11)
Sec. 29-11. Failure to comply with order of election authority. Any person who knowingly fails or refuses to comply with any lawful order of an election authority issued by the election authority in the performance of the duties of the election authority, shall be guilty of a Class A misdemeanor.
(Source: P.A. 78-887.)

The Illinois State Board of Elections, Case No. 16 CD 093, confirmed that the campaign committee of Frank Mautino willfully failed to comply with their order to amend certain D-2 form submitted by the campaign.

ISBE Finding located here:

The Respondent Committee willfully violated the Board’s May 18, 2016, order vis-a-vis failing to amend the disclosure reports filed in 2014 and 2015 to a) reflect an accurate breakdown between gas and repair made to HSS, 2) identifying the actual recipient of each itemized expenditure made to HSS, as well as 3) identifying the specific purpose of any expenditures made to SVCB.”

So the very oversight board ruled the Mautino campaign willfully violated the Board’s order, yet they claimed there was no violation of the election code?

Election Code 101, for those that missed it.

(10 ILCS 5/29-11) (from Ch. 46, par. 29-11)
Sec. 29-11. Failure to comply with order of election authority. Any person who knowingly fails or refuses to comply with any lawful order of an election authority issued by the election authority in the performance of the duties of the election authority, shall be guilty of a Class A misdemeanor.
(Source: P.A. 78-887.)

We allege this to be a criminal act, a Class A Misdemeanor, as provided for in the Illinois Election Code, Section 29-11.  In order for this violation to be prosecuted it must be forwarded to the appropriate Police Investigative agency to investigate and forwarded to the States Attorney for a determination regarding prosecution.

Considering the ISBE was negligent in the performance of their duties, we went ahead and forwarded this to the proper authorities in the form of a criminal complaint today, along with other criminal allegations.

The ISBE Board members who voted to NOT enforce their own law should be removed from Office by the Governor for Official Misconduct.