Here’s where DeKalb voters in precincts 4, 5 will vote on Nov. 8, why clerk’s office issued location change amid partisan push

DeKALB – Voters in two of DeKalb’s precincts should be aware of new voter ID cards and polling locations ahead of the November General Election, after the DeKalb County Clerk and Recorder’s Office recently issued new cards.

Voters of precinct DK04 will vote Nov. 8 at Westminster Presbyterian Church, 830 North Annie Glidden Road, and precinct DK05 voters will go to New Hope Missionary Baptist Church, 1201 Twombly Road, according to a Sept. 26 news release from the clerk’s office.

That’s a changeup from where those DeKalb residents voted during the June primary and where they had been instructed to vote prior to last week.

In the June primary precinct DK04 voters went to New Hope Missionary Baptist Church and precinct DK05 voters went to Westminster Presbyterian Church. Some with the DeKalb County Democratic Party alleged those locations should have been switched.

County Clerk Douglas Johnson, a Republican, said Sept. 21 he was aware of those concerns and agreed the polling places needed to be switched for precincts DK04 and DK05. However, he didn’t want to make the change between the primary and general election in an effort to streamline voters’ process.

“We made the decision that changing it after the primary, before the general, would just confuse the voters more,” Johnson said. “We didn’t want to do that going into a general.”

Johnson said his office had initially planned to change the polling places back to their old locations prior to the upcoming spring 2023 consolidated election. Because the 2022 primary was moved to June, Johnson said he felt that it might be tough to educate voters on their new polling places in the time between the June and November elections.

“So I made the decision to leave it as is,” Johnson said Sept. 21.

That decision was expedited, however, by the clerk’s issuance of new voter ID cards last week.

When asked this week why he changed his mind, Johnson said pressure from members of the DeKalb County Democratic Party caused him to change his mind and send out the new voter ID cards.

“I guess they had some impression that it was going to adversely affect their – [Democrats] call them their voters in that area, I informed them, of course there’s more than just their voters in that area – but yeah,” Johnson said. “They for some reason thought that having to go across Annie Glidden Road was a hardship.”

A Sept. 18 social media post from the DeKalb County Illinois Democratic Party Facebook page to the DeKalb County Illinois Democrats Discussion Group advised citizens “that there was an error at the Clerks office.” Johnson disputes that any error was made. Anna Wilhelmi, chair of the local Democratic Party, called Johnson’s office to ask about the fourth and fifth precinct locations.

“One person thinks it should be this way, another thinks it should be that way. That’s basically what went on,” Johnson said. “That’s when [Wilhelmi] says I made a mistake or an error. I did not make a mistake or error. It just wasn’t the way they liked it.”

County Board member Scott Campbell, a Democrat from District 7, commented on the Sept. 18 Facebook post.

“Error”? Bull [expletive]. Doug doesn’t seem to make ‘errors’ except when it inconveniences students or people of color,” Campbell wrote. In a subsequent Facebook comment Campbell said “Let’s see if he was careless enough to put something in writing,” and shared a screenshot of a Freedom of Information Act request searching for emails from Johnson or others in his office discussing the two precincts in question.

Campbell confirmed to the Daily Chronicle that he did request information through FOIA from the DeKalb County Clerk and Recorders’ Office. On Tuesday, Campbell said he was concerned because he thinks the two precincts in question tend to be heavily populated by people of color.

“I’m not pointing any fingers at Doug Johnson about that, but I think extra scrutiny on why mistakes happen and how they can be expeditiously corrected is very, very important in that community,” Campbell said. “We want voter representation to be across the board equal and fair and open.”

Campbell said he doesn’t allege Johnson did anything nefarious but is glad the precinct locations were “corrected.”

Johnson however, described Campbell’s social media comments and Freedom of Information Act request as an attack.

“I had been attacked by one of the other county board members that FOIA’d me with some impression that I had been doing something irregular,” Johnson said. “And once he FOID’d and found out that there were no emails that he thought he could use against me, or bash me with, that went away.”

That was the pressure from area democrats that Johnson, who’s run countywide elections for nine years, said made him change his mind, and issue new voter ID cards with the updated locations for precincts DK04 and DK05.

Johnson said he thinks DeKalb County democrats tried to spin-up the voter ID cards as an erroneous decision from his office.

Wilhelmi, who advocated for the precinct location change, said she thinks the changeup is a plus for voters.

“I have mixed feelings, but I think this is going to be better,” said Wilhelmi. “I’m hoping because intuitively the voters are going to want to go in the area that is closest to them, right?”

When asked if the scrutiny from DeKalb County Democrats was fair, Johnson said, “What’s fair in life is in the eye of the beholder.”

“So if somebody’s upset, I’m sorry,” Johnson said “We make errors and when we see them we correct them, and we will do it at the most proper time and place and in the best interests of voters of DeKalb County.”