The losing candidate in the 2022 race for Will County clerk is asking a judge to order a new election in the case, citing mathematic formulas alleging the final count was fraudulent.
Republican Gretchen Fritz filed the lawsuit Dec. 28, claiming she believes “mistakes and fraud have been committed in the casting and counting of ballots” in the Will County clerk’s race because her opponent, Democratic Will County Clerk Lauren Staley Ferry, received more votes than Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker.
Staley Ferry issued the final results of the election Nov. 29 with the final results tallied at 121,833 for Staley Ferry and 108,629 for Fritz, according to the lawsuit.
In reviewing the vote totals in other races, Fritz noticed Pritzker received 117,475, which is 4,358 fewer votes than Staley Ferry, according to the lawsuit.
“It appeared quite unusual that a candidate for Will County Clerk, listed at least eight offices below the office with the most media coverage and largest political spending in the state, would receive more votes than the gubernatorial candidate of her party,” according to the lawsuit.
Erik Nisbet, Northwestern University associate professor of policy analysis and communication, said when candidates of the same party receive different vote totals it indicates ticket splitting, not voter fraud.
Voters split tickets for various reasons, Nisbet said. For example, state races tend to be more partisan than local races, meaning voters had “lots of reasons” for voting for or against Pritzker but felt differently about the clerk’s race.
“Split ticket voting is a sign of a healthy democracy not bad elections,” Nisbet said. “The fact that a local town clerk got more voters than the governor just means they saw the clerk race as less partisan than the governor race.”
Fritz’s attorney, David Shestokas, said Tuesday the lawsuit highlights a “21st Century approach to manipulating the election process.”
When asked about the possibility of ticket splitting, Shestokas said the lawsuit includes 40 pages with calculations that account for various variables.
The lawsuit also cites an analysis by Walter Daugherity, senior lecturer emeritus in computer science and engineering with Texas A&M University, who determined the vote totals were “artificially contrived according to a predetermined plan or algorithm.”
It also relies on Edward Solomon, who the lawsuit states analyzed the Will County clerk election results and found they “are not the result of a free and fair election.”
A previous analysis by Solomon is part of a defamation lawsuit brought by Dominion Voting Systems against One America News Network, after Solomon told the network the results in Fulton County, Georgia, for the 2020 presidential election “can only have been done by an algorithm.”
Fritz is asking the court to find the election “was the predetermined result of fraudulent and illegal manipulation of the voting processes and not the free and fair expression of the will of the people,” according to the lawsuit.
The lawsuit also asks the court to declare the Will County clerk’s office vacant, order a new election for the clerk’s office and that the new election “be conducted with only paper ballots and be physically hand counted.”
During the campaign, Fritz cited election security as a concern, saying she would focus on proactively cleaning voter rolls if elected by doing things such as comparing death records to the voter rolls, and she supported showing identification to vote.
Staley Ferry said one person on her team was dedicated to removing those who are deceased from the system, and there are checks and balances in place to maintain the voter rolls. She also noted the county board had approved an automated vote-by-mail system costing about $1.9 million, paid for from federal pandemic relief funds, that was used in the June 2022 primary and general election.
The case is scheduled in court Thursday before Will County Judge John Anderson, but Assistant State’s Attorney Scott Pyles will request a 28-day extension to file a response to the complaint, according to court filings.
Pyles did not respond to calls or email for comment Tuesday.
