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The Lake County Board of Elections Tuesday said it would like to address the issue of duplicate addresses in its voting rolls, but since it was named as a defendant in the complaint, it ethically cannot do so.
Republican board member Michael Mellon said that as a defendant in the complaint, it puts officials and staff of the election board in a precarious situation because of the inherent conflict the complaint creates.
“I think we are conflicted out against hearing this. I have a vested interest to not rule against myself. This needs to go to a different body,” Melon said.
Carol Parker filed a complaint on Oct. 31, which names 33 registered voters at the UPS Store, at 2187 45th St., one at Salon Capellani at 2152 45th St., two registered voters at the U.S. Post Office at 800 Kennedy Ave. — all in Highland — and the Lake County Board of Elections as respondents.
In the complaint, Parker alleges the Lake County Board of Elections may have failed to secure valid documentation from registered voters and that these 36 voters may have registered to vote and may have voted from those addresses.
She asked in the complaint if registered voters are allowed to use post office boxes and business addresses for their voting precinct. She also asked which precautions are being taken to ensure other Lake County registered voters are not using business or post office addresses for their current address for voting.
Parker told the board she would remove them as respondents and accused the board of not wanting to hear the matter.
Board president Kevin Smith, a Democrat, said that officials could not do that since it has been filed. He said the board could not offer legal advice. It would be up to Parker to determine what body to file the original complaint or how to amend the current one.
“This board absolutely wants to hear any complaint about registered voters,” Mellon said. “The board wants to hear those and have those open public discussions. However, this is my problem, you listed us … I basically have to ignore this complaint and wait for another one,” Mellon said.
Smith agreed. He said Parker raised an interesting topic, but he did not think it would helpful for the board to hear it.
Both the Republican and Democratic board attorneys, Carly Brandenburg and Michael Tolbert, respectively, agreed with Mellon’s assessment of the complaint.
Regardless of whether officials ruled in favor of or against the complainant, their actions could be called into question because the board of elections is named in the suit, the attorneys said.
Typically, complaints are filed with the election board against matters concerning candidates, campaign finance reports, improper voter registration and other elections-related issues. Then, the election board conducts a hearing at one of its regularly scheduled meetings.
Parker is one of a cadre of conservatives who have been attending Lake County Council, Commissioners, Board of Elections, and recently Health Board meetings demanding accountability on matters in line with far-right talking points.
The group previously successfully harangued the election board to cancel its contract with Michigan-based Konnech Corp, for its PollChief poll worker management software purchased in 2020. Without evidence, they said the software was being used to send poll workers’ personal identifying information to China. The board ultimately moved to cancel the contract in August.
The county never implemented the software, whose purchase and proposed use drew the ire of the group which had attended meetings for almost a year to complain about the software and demand its cancellation. The county suspended its implementation in 2022 while allegations about the storing of information in Los Angeles County were investigated. That case was dropped a few weeks later.
In January, Los Angeles County was ordered to pay $5 million to Konnech CEO Eugene Yu after he sued in 2023 claiming the arrest cost the company more than $80 million in business, according to court documents.
At the time, Mellon said the move to cancel the contract was not due to the pushback from some residents nor does it affirm the validity of the concerns raised by those opposed to the software implementation.
“I think the pushback from the community obviously made us look at the software; and in reviewing the software, we realized we weren’t utilizing it,” Mellon said, adding if the software is not being utilized, maybe it is just time to cancel it.
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