Saturday, October 30, 2010

Can MCSD inmates vote? No?

After Monday's night's candidates' forums at MCC, I asked McHenry County Clerk Kathie Schultz if inmates at the McHenry County Jail were permitted to vote. She said that they are, but they must vote an absentee ballot. Also, a felon is not permitted to vote.

A felon would be a person convicted of a felony. A person charged with a felony and incarcerated awaiting trial is not a felon and should be able to vote until such time, if ever, that he is convicted.

Today I received the following email:

"I am writing to let you know that I have a (relative) in McHenry County Jail, awaiting trial on Feb 14th. He is being accused of a crime that he is innocent of. He and several others in the jail want to vote for you, however the guards are making it difficult for them to do so. He wanted me to send you an email letting you know that you should make sure that all of those people are given their constitutional right to vote. Instead they are being discouraged to vote, as this is a close race."

This is not the first communication that I have received about impediments to exercising the right to vote in the McHenry County Jail.

I shall be at the McHenry County Clerk's office on Monday morning to request an investigation into practices at the McHenry County Jail that restrict or eliminate lawful voting by inmates.

Wouldn't you think that Sheriff Keith Nygren, who boasts that "Experience Counts", would be scrupulous in his attention and direction to jail personnel that they not interfere with voting by inmates?

8 comments:

Toa said...

Once again you appear to level charges without any adequate basis for doing so. Other than second hand hearsay you have nothing to offer and demand that officials prove to you that they are not acting as accused. That's just how screwed up you are, Gus. You have the wherewithal - in your highly placed sources - to prove that this IS happening yet you expect the sheriff's office to prove that it isn't happening, i.e. prove a negative.

Perhaps you can tell your source that her inmate can prove that he's innocent. That might work better than requiring his accusers to prove him guilty.

Once again...

You are an idiot!

Justin said...

Give me a break! You expect us to believe that load of excrement? Once again GUS is looking for more Windmills to fight. Just like Don Quixote, they are imagined.

Notawannabee said...

Once upon a time in a quite village lived a lonely old bearded man. Aside from blogging on his computer, he fashioned himself to be a traffic vigilante and his own bio says “ a Problem Magnet “

This man. Lets call him GUS. Gus wanted to be important and powerful so he ran for Sheriff. He constantly ran about town crying WOLF or should I say, crying about the WOLF.

First it was the Wolf was staring at him in a threatening manner, and then the WOLF had too many points on his star. Soon thereafter the WOLF was driving a fancy Tahoe. Now the WOLF won’t let bad guys out of his house of brick so they can vote for Gus.

Maybe GUS has "huffed and puffed" too much. Maybe the metaphor is twisted but you know what? Now nobody listens to Gus ….not even by the hair on Gus’s chinny chin chin.

Gus said...

The right to vote is just that - a right. Will savvy inmates sue Nygren (and McHenry County) for violating that right?

Just what McHenry County Sheriff's Dept. needs, isn't it? Another lawsuit.

If (and I repeat, IF) MCSD prevented inmates from voting ... well, we'll start finding out on Monday morning.

Unknown said...

What a bunch of goofballs. It is almost funny how they try to defend Nygren each time he pulls a fast one. If just once they would admit that he should have acted differently I might be willing to listen. Instead they act like a bunch of desperate puppies begging for his approval.

Vote Nygren out! That bully needs to move on!

Gus said...

I wonder whether Toa, Justin and Notawannabee would be singing a different tune, if they were a guest at the Nygren Hotel awaiting trial and Election Day was coming up.

Would they want to vote? If they knew of their right to vote but were prevented from exercising it, would they be screaming?

Some wise person once said, "If you don't know your rights, you don't have any."

Unknown said...

I suspect they are hotel guests. Just guests of one of Nygren's numerous other places of rest and relaxation, and they are enjoying the fruits of Nygren's evil. They will be singing like birds after Nov 3 and the investigation begins.

Toa said...

Okay, Gus, it's Monday evening. I realize that with all your appearances on Meet the Press, the evening news shows and whatnot, you've been pretty busy but, like we wait for your definitive statute prohibiting the police and fire from escorting veteran's either returning home or heading to their final rest, I just gotta ask. What, if anything, did you learn about the so-called denial of voting for the inmates. You know the issue, given to you as second hand hearsay by a relative of a inmate who, according to you, never actually said that he wasn't allowed to vote, just that (allegedly) the corrections people make it "difficult" said difficulty not being defined.

You were up at the courthouse today per your commentary on the motorcycle illegally parking in a loading zone. Did you get to the bottom of this crisis or were you too busy meddling elsewhere?

What say you?