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| photo credit: Illinois Review |
Salvi won over 38,000 more votes in the seven-way Republican primary than runner-up Peggy Hubbard.
Early voting has been underway in Illinois for weeks, and votes have already been cast in this race. According to a press release from Salvi's campaign, Schuyler County has informed her that over 307 incorrect ballots were distributed. At least 45 of these voters had returned completed ballots as of October 12.
In a statement for that press release, Salvi said,
“On Tuesday, October 11th, it was brought to my attention that ballots drafted by the Schuyler County Board of Elections, and approved by the Illinois State Board of Elections, incorrectly listed one of my primary opponents as the Republican nominee for United States Senate. Our campaign legal team immediately took action and worked with the Schuyler County State’s Attorney. While we came to the best remedy - to sequester the hundreds of ballots that were distributed - this does not solve the most pressing problem of election integrity and transparency.”“Illinois voters need to have confidence in our elections and this unacceptable error does absolutely nothing to provide that comfort. There needs to be accountability at the county level for this mistake and with the Illinois Board of Elections for approving the ballots. Voters spoke during the June primary and now they are being disenfranchised, period. We need answers from our election officials as to how this happened and transparency to show inaccurate ballots have not been approved elsewhere in the state.”
A spokesperson for the Illinois State Board of Elections told Illinois Review that Schuyler County Clerk Mindy Garrett (D) plans to credit Salvi with the early votes that went to Hubbard, and the county plans to re-issue corrected ballots to affected voters.
