State Board of Elections protects Mautino – Fails the people of Illinois

Illinois (ECWd) –

All the State Board of Election had to do was determine if Illinois Auditor General Frank Mautino reported his State Representative campaign expenditures incorrectly.  The task was simple.

During the hearing on the complaint filed by David Cook against Frank Mautino’s campaign, the best the SBE could come up with was that the campaign failed to respond to the orders of the board and they issued a $5,000 fine against the campaign.   The actual complaint that his committee reported the expenditures incorrectly has yet to be addressed and according to what we heard today, the case is closed and they have no intention of answering the very complaint filed.

Had certain members actually read the whole record they would have been able to see that not only were expenditures reported improperly, they had an admission to that fact from Mautino’s attorney, which we covered in this article.

From Mautino’s attorney; “Complainant argues that the Committee reported these expenditures incorrectly. While this may be true as to some of the reported expenditures”

Did you get that?  They confirm at a minimum, some of the reported expenditures were not done correctly, which indicates to anyone with a brain, he failed to properly report his expenditures.  Had this entire board actually read the pleadings they would have known this and been able to issue a finding that Mautino’s campaign did, in fact, violate the election code.

As we pointed out before, page 47 is where the admission can be found yet this board claimed they were unable to find anything wrong with his reporting and closed the case. Such a failure to address the very complaint before them points to this being nothing more than a kangaroo court that failed the public.

Even more disgusting in this process was this boards inability to garner enough votes to turn this over for a potential criminal prosecution.  The lame excuse was 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. Anyone that has kept up with the extensive coverage of Mautino’s check cashing scheme knows such a position is nothing more than a protective mechanism of the establishment and political gamesmanship that has plagued the State of Illinois for years.

It’s clear, the rule of law is no longer applicable to the political elite.  I addressed the board during the public comment and you can view the whole video below or my public comment at the 1:16:58 mark of the vidoe below.

In the meantime, know that this board failed the public with their refusal to read and apply the rule of law and the citizen of Illinois are the ones harmed by their actions.

We will be filing a formal criminal complaint with the State Police on this matter as it is clear this body refused to have a real investigation initiated.

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