Aurora Mayor Wants To Abolish Election Commission
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Aurora Mayor Tom Weisner has issued a scathing press release calling for the elimination of the Aurora Election Commission, accusing the body of failing to post election results in a timely manner earlier this week.
"The Aurora Election Commission's abysmal failure Tuesday night to properly provide online the election results from within its jurisdiction to the public is but the most recent example of the general incompetence of the Commission Board, as well as the staff and the Board attorney, who are collectively and individually wasting local tax dollars," Weisner said.
The mayor claimed the commission's website did not list any election results until after 9 a.m. Wednesday, more than 14 hours after polls closed.
"The Aurora Election Commission is basically a one-trick pony that deals with elections, and they're kind of a lame one-trick pony at that," Weisner said in a phone interview.
The commission denied Weisner's allegations.
"It's unfortunate. We've done the same thing we've done every other election. We posted the results, and we want to make sure that the results that are being posted are accurate, and if you look on the website, it shows the time of posting was 11:36:02 [p.m. Tuesday]," commission attorney Patrick Bond said.
Weisner called that "a lot of malarkey."
"That is not accurate. They may have ended up somewhere, but if they did, it's where nobody could find it," he said.
The mayor said Aurora residents should get together to put a referendum on the November ballot to abolish the commission, which he said is obsolete and has a substantial track record of mismanagement.
In 2010, the Aurora City Council voted to place a referendum on the ballot, but the commission refused, saying the issue should be placed on the ballot only through voter petitions.