Cook County Elections Executive Director Clem Balanoff is Part of Obama’s Campaign

Partisanship in elections is simply part of the equation in Illinois.  Are there boundaries for Cook County election officials?

Illinois security is based on a partisan security model. In Cook County (excluding the City of Chicago) the Suburban Cook County Elections is run by elected Democrat Cook County Clerk, David Orr.  David Orr has selected Clem Balanoff to run elections for over 2 million voters in Cook County.  Clem is the Executive Director of Elections.  The many photos lining his office provide a long historical line of his meetings with big political names.

Okay, I get that… When you visit Clem’s office, he proudly displays multiple photos of partisan events which memorialize his experiences… I get that Clem would have these photos in his office.  (Though, I haven’t check the legality of it)

Where is the line?  Shall we draw the line at Clem participating and being a part of Obama’s 2012 campaign team? How about volunteering for his campaign and posting the pictures on his Facebook profile? Does this cross the line?

Remember, Clem controls what goes on in Cook County elections.  Every time I am blocked for critical data related to the security of these elections, (lately, a daily event) I am legitimately concerned… Are the constant blocks to influence the Obama campaign?

I genuinely pose this question, based on my experience.  Does the motive for Suburban Cook County to block our access to key data have traces of partisanship?  These blocks include blocks on hiring and placing election judges and a refusal to secure the most vulnerable voters in Illinois, the nursing home residents.

The data I have been requesting is delayed by weeks and then yesterday was suddenly in PDF instead of a convertible format.  This action completely restricts our ability to work with the data!