Fellow Republicans, 

 

Wishing you a blessed and joyous Easter season filled with the love of family and friends. May the miracle of Easter bring you renewed hope, faith, love, and joy! 


Moving into political content, election integrity has been a hotly debated topic in politics in recent years. We Republicans want voting to be easy, and vote cheating hard. Democrats just want voting to be easy. The Democrat Party narrative has always been that fraudulent voting is a myth and election integrity is a mainly a Republican initiative to suppress voting rights. What the Democrat Party and its media allies will not readily acknowledge is that in heavily contested Democratic primaries, Democrat politicos are equally concerned about election integrity. For example,  in the Cook County State's Attorney race with the outcome still too close to call, there are an impressive number of Democrat attorneys and Democrat poll watchers carefully and diligently observing the vote counting  process days after the election, and vigorously writing down their observations and their concerns.  While both candidates have made statements regarding letting the process play out without jumping to any conclusions, to have so many people representing their respective Democrat campaigns in the vote counting rooms shows a high level of election integrity concern and evidences the need for election integrity guardrails sufficient to insure honest and transparent elections. Actions speak louder than words.

 

Since having a fulltime election integrity director for the past year, the party has made significant strides in taking steps towards the 2024 election.

  • In partnership with the Illinois Conservative Union, we built and maintained a working relationship with some of our Grassroots partners and formed a statewide coalition involved with election integrity efforts.
  • Provided election integrity training both in person and online. Contact CJ if you would like to schedule a training for your county
  • Recruitment efforts are ongoing and we continuously reach out to volunteers throughout the state to serve again or serve for the first time as election judges. You can also sign up here
  • Several county party organizations statewide have active election integrity committees who work on all facets of election integrity including voter list maintenance.
  • With our Election Integrity statewide coalition partners we have helped delay potential Ranked Choice Voting legislation. Our grassroots partners submitted thousands of witness slips to combat potential legislation that would turn Illinois into an all vote by mail state.
  • Our coalition partners analyzed the state's voter data to discover duplicate voter registrations and are working with the county clerks on these efforts.
  • We have 20 active counties represented and concentrated in voter list maintenance efforts including Cook and DuPage. In partnership with the Illinois Conservative Union, Illinois Republicans are working with Judicial Watch to remove inactive voters from the State voter rolls. With the Illinois Conservative Union's leadership, we have developed forms for voters who have moved out of the state or if the voters do not live at the address that is on their registration. Voter List Maintenance will be incredibly important to ensure that unqualified voters do not cast a vote or voters that are still registered who have moved out of state or have passed away are properly and timely removed from the registration database.

The goal moving forward consists of several layers with the most important of them being a massive effort in election judge and poll watcher recruitment and placement. While continuing to recruit for these two important positions, we also will have a heavy emphasis on more election integrity training over zoom and in person to better educate voters on the process, as well as gauge interest to serve as election judges or poll watchers. The overall goal of our election integrity efforts is to make it easy to vote and hard to cheat. We need all eyes on the ballot and encourage all Illinois Republicans to sign up here. 
 

For more information on the Illinois Republican Party State Convention visit https://rcca.gop/convention/ for the registration form, volunteer sign up, and hotel options. Stay tuned for upcoming details. 
 
 

We examined the voting records of all of the commissioned Republican election judges in the City of Chicago and in suburban Cook County. It is apparent that far too many Republican election judges actually have a history of voting in Democratic primaries. We simply must do a better job of filling our Republican election judge positions with actual Republicans. If we do not fill these positions, the Democrats will. I encourage any Republican who lives in Cook County to take the extra step in participating in the electoral process by becoming an election judge. Sign up to be an election judge! 
 
 

Calling all Republicans, Conservatives, and Patriots. We need all eyes on the ballot! Election judges serve a crucial role in ensuring fair and transparent elections. Encourage all your friends, family members, neighbors, and colleagues to serve as election judges for the general election! Sign up to be an election judge in your county!

In case you have recently moved or just wish to check your registration status go to https://ova.elections.il.gov/RegistrationLookup.aspx to make sure that your voter registration is up to date ahead of the crucial 2024 election cycle.

To find out how you can help save Illinois, go to the Illinois Election Integrity Program website at ieip.org. Volunteer for as little or as much as you are able! Volunteers can help by joining the Illinois Election Integrity Program. Please reach out to CJ, our Election Integrity Director for further assistance.
 
 

We frequently hear that this Memo is not as widely distributed as it should be. Please help us in that regard by forwarding it to your family and friends. Click on the sign-up link
 
 
 

McCombie Column: Give Illinois Residents the Ethical Government They Deserve

 

With the two-year anniversary of former Speaker Mike Madigan’s indictment coinciding with national ethics awareness month, I am working to advance ethics reform in the Illinois House this spring.

 

Federal indictments of public officials and those closely connected to them have rocked the state in recent years, while the majority party has refused to step up to close existing loopholes in current law.

 

To address some of those shortcomings and restore faith in government, I have filed a measure, HB4119, to prohibit elected officials from using political campaign donations to pay for their criminal defense. Madigan, the longest serving state House speaker in modern U.S. history, was indicted on federal racketeering and bribery charges in March 2022. He was set to stand trial in federal court in April 2024, but the trial has been pushed back to October 8, 2024. To date, he has used millions in campaign funds to pay for his legal defense.

 

Last week, I was pleased to present HB4119 in a subject matter hearing to the Ethics and Elections Committee in the Illinois House. There, I discussed the need for this measure in moving our legislature toward greater ethics reform.

 

The silence from Democrat lawmakers – many of whom supported Speaker Madigan – is deafening. My bill is a commonsense approach to ensure campaign financing is used as intended. This is about accountability, and we must hold elected officials to a higher standard.

 

As House Minority Leader, I am also supporting four other ethics reform measures this year:

 

1) House Bill 1277 would suspend the benefit or annuity payments to a member or participant in a retirement system or pension fund if the member or participant is charged with a felony; 2) House Bill 4286 would enact a three-year revolving door ban on lobbying; 3) House Bill 4288 would require the Executive and Legislative Ethics Commissions to make reports available within 60 days; and 4) House Bill 4289 would amend the Lobbyist Registration Act to expand the definition of “officials” to include more positions at the local level and expands the definition of “lobbying.”

 

Inexcusably, getting meaningful ethics reform passed into law remains an uphill battle in the Illinois legislature.  With Mike Madigan’s shadow still looming large over our government, we need to get serious about taking action to improve our ethics laws this year. Illinois residents deserve an ethical government worthy of their trust. There is much more we must do to improve government, and these are the first steps. I encourage residents to follow these as they proceed through the legislative process on ilga.gov and repmccombie.com.
 
Pledge to Bank Your Vote
 

The Parents Matter Coalition (PMC) was started by a group of Illinois parents concerned with protecting their children. As the state of Illinois continues to encroach upon parents’ right to be involved in their children’s lives – particularly within the context of major life-altering decisions such as abortion or gender modifying therapies and treatments – PMC came together to push back against the government’s interference in parent-child relationships. Together, the coalition introduced a ballot initiative (referred to as the ‘Right to Parent’ initiative) that poses a very simple question: should parental consent be required for any minor child to receive life-altering treatments? If the 500,000 signature minimum is met by April of 2024, this question will appear on the ballot of every voter in the state on Election Day. The Parents Rights Initiative is a signature petition drive to support a Ballot Advisory Question (BAQ) to collect 500,000 signatures to secure a place on the November 2024 General Election Ballot. We will do this when we engage 50,000 volunteer circulators from around the state representing a multitude of organizations all committed to a parent’s right to parent their minor children. Please help us gather the 500,000 signatures needed to get this on the Fall ballot by printing the petition form from the website and asking your family, friends and colleagues to sign the petition.
 

Thank you for all you do and for supporting the Illinois Republican Party.


Sincerely,


Don Tracy


Please stand with us and consider making a $10 or $25 contribution to our efforts. Your generous donation will fund our fight against the Democrat socialist agenda. Thank you in advance.

Illinois Republican Party | PO Box 64897, Chicago, IL 60664

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