There’s a new effort underway to shut down the East St. Louis Election Board. Illinois State Rep. Dwight Kay (R-Glen Carbon) is sponsoring a bill to close it. Kay’s district includes portions of Madison and St. Clair County, but not East St. Louis. If the bill passes, the St. Clair County Clerk will take over responsibility for elections in East St. Louis. “Illinois is sort of at a brink here when it comes to its finances,” Kay said. “And I think we are doing ourselves a disfavor by continuing to fund two separate offices when it comes to counting ballots and doing the work of the county clerk when he could be doing the work himself.” Kay said that closing the election board could save East St. Louis more than $400,000 a year.
“So by consolidation, we could save money, and so could East St. Louis,” Kay said. “That money then, the money that’s being spent in East St. Louis, could be spent in other ways that might be more beneficial to the residents of that area.”
St. Clair County Clerk Tom Holbrook said that his office could handle the additional responsibility, but would need some more money each year to pay for more equipment and election judges.
Holbrook didn’t give an estimate of how much, however.
Full Article: Lawmaker: Close East St. Louis Election Board | St. Louis Public Radio.