A Republican candidate for Cook County judge has sued Cook County Clerk Karen Yarbrough, asserting the clerk broke election laws and rules to help one of her former top employees win the seat on the Cook County bench from Chicago’s northwest suburbs.
On Dec. 30, Park Ridge attorney Frank R. DiFranco filed suit in Chicago federal court against Yarbrough, the Cook County Board of Elections, Illinois State Board of Elections and Patricia Fallon, the presumptive winner in the race for the contested judgeship.
DiFranco had been the Republican nominee for a seat in the Cook County Circuit Court’s 12th Judicial Subcircuit, which covers much of Cook County’s northwest suburbs, including Maine Township, Elk Grove Township and Wheeling Township.
Frank DiFranco
| DiFranco & Associates
His opponent was Democrat Patricia M. Fallon.
Fallon had served as chief of Human Resources in the Cook County Recorder of Deeds office, while Yarbrough served as Recorder. Fallon held that position from 2017 until she was appointed to the Cook County bench by the Illinois Supreme Court in July 2019.
Yarbrough was elected Cook County Clerk in 2018. Her office has since absorbed the functions of the Recorder’s office, after voters approved a referendum in 2018 dissolving the Recorder’s office, and transferring those functions to the Clerk’s office.
Many of the Recorder’s office’s former employees also transferred to the Clerk’s office.
However, DiFranco asserts Yarbrough chose to continue counting ballots until Nov. 22, at which time her office declared Fallon the winner in the contest by 503 votes.
In his complaint, DiFranco asserts Yarbrough’s office didn’t merely continue to count valid ballots.
Rather, DiFranco accused Yarbrough’s office of using the Vote By Mail process to inflate Fallon’s totals, specifically by:
- Altering postmarks on VBM envelopes, to make them appear to have been mailed by Election Day, Nov. 3;
- Accepting so-called drop off ballots after the cutoff date spelled out by law;
- Hampering the ability of election judges to detect duplicate votes; and
- Allowing possible VBM voters to cast a regular ballot, and not a provisional ballot as required by law, even though such voters’ VBM Ballots “had not been returned, (were) unaccounted for, and still outstanding.”
Further, DiFranco directly accused Yarbrough’s office of double-counting ballots, because the county’s voting machines were not equipped to detect duplicate ballots.
DiFranco has filed a similar proceeding in state court, according to the federal filing.
DiFranco’s complaint asks the court to toss out the election results, and either declare him the winner or order a new election.
He further has requested money damages of at least $100,000 “for violations of (his) Constitutional rights.”
DiFranco is represented in the action by attorneys Tim Biasello, of Park Ridge; Ilia Usharovich, of Wheeling; James Karahalios, of Park Ridge; and Michael Pieczonka, of Park Ridge.