Madison Co., Ill. (ECWd) –
We received several emailed complaints after the March 17, 2026, primary election concerning people who said they had voted “NO” on a tax referendum for the Long Lake Fire Protection District tax rate increase questions, but the Madison County Clerk tallied ZERO “NO” votes on the question, and another referendum for the same Fire Protection District had abnormally low (single digit) “no” votes.
Eventually, the County Clerk asked the court to authorize a recount, and the court agreed in its Order.
From MCPCTF.org:
A court-ordered recount was held, starting at 9 a.m. Monday, March 30, in Room 309 of the Madison County Administrative Building after voter complaints — not internal election safeguards — exposed a failure in the March 17 primary.
The recount involves two Long Lake Fire Protection District referendum questions: one to increase the district’s tax rate from 0.30% to 0.40%, and another to impose a separate tax, capped at 0.40%, to fund ambulance service.
The discrepancy was brought to the attention of MCPCTF.org and Madison County Clerk Linda Andreas by Nameoki Township 3 Precinct Committeeman Nick Cohan after multiple voters told him they voted “no,” but the results showed little to no opposition to the tax hikes.
Cohan raised the issue in a March 19 email sent to county election officials, Madison County Board members, and numerous GOP party members and friends, and media outlets.
In a petition filed March 20, Andreas acknowledged that the county failed to calculate no votes due to what she described as a “clerical format irregularity” in the voting software.
According to the filing, results showed 383 “yes” votes and just 2 “no” votes on the first question, and 327 “yes” votes with zero “no” votes on the second question across eight precincts.
Those precincts include Collinsville Township Precinct 10 and Nameoki Townships 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8 — representing 1,116 ballots.
She admits in her filing the absence of “no” votes as “highly unlikely.”
Andreas’ petition request was granted the same day, authorizing ballots to be unsealed and hand-counted by election judges.
Another record tied to the complaint shows that Cohan also appears multiple times in the voter rolls under variations of his name, including “Nicholas J. Cohan,” “Nicholas Lee Cohan,” and “Nick Lee Cohan,” with the same address, raising more questions about voter roll accuracy under Andreas.
Before the primary, Republican MCPCTF.org had reported on concerns about Andreas’ candidacy, including errors in her petition paperwork that listed the wrong year for the primary and included another candidate’s filing alongside her own, as well as her being sued under the Ku Klux Klan Act for harassing a church.
Despite those issues, the Madison County Electoral Board — consisting of Sheriff Jeff Connor, State’s Attorney Tom Haine, and County Clerk Patrick McRae — allowed her to remain on the ballot.
Additional problems were reported on the first day of early voting as well, including ballot issues in a contested race between 2A attorney Thomas Maag and County Board member Bobby Ross, and reports that only one machine was operational at a polling location.
The court order authorizing the recount does not define who qualifies as an “authorized observer,” and Illinois law provides no clear standard for restricting public access to a hand count of ballots.
While credentialed poll watchers are explicitly recognized under state law, broader access — including for members of the public or media — remains undefined.
2 Responses
Kudos to Cohan for reporting the issue after complaints were brought forward to him. But there’s a REALLY BIG problem with his name, appearing on the voter rolls in various forms. What the heck? Election integrity teams manned by Illinois citizens have been working hard in the past year if not longer to get the voter rolls cleaned up in Illinois, especially after Illinois has been sued over the matter. It is my understanding that not very many counties in Illinois are participating in that cleanup effort. It would appear that Democrat and Republican officials alike are not that concerned with duplicate names as well as other anomalies showing up on the voter rolls, but that is a place where fraud happens. And be sure to check your permanent vote by mail lists too. There are people on there who should not be on there. But they get mailed a ballot, until we can find out if they are dead or not. And if they live in another state that seems to be okay too. Overseas balloting is another area that needs to be watched as there are NO rules to register to vote from overseas. Voting safeguards in IL are practically non-existent. Citizens must step up to monitor.
Someone needs to go to jail