| A grass roots door to door campaign and a
concerted effort to have an honest election in Carpentersville resulted
in the voice of "We the People" being heard. While much of
America has lost interest in voting because they believe "nothing will
change" there are still pockets of hope such as Carpentersville, IL which
serve as an example to the rest of our great country that "your vote really
does matter".
As decribed below, the federal department of justice brought in poll watchers and people are still compiling the information as to their activities. ICIRR and MALDEF also brought in poll watchers. In addition, local citizens organized and placed their own poll watchers in many precincts. Humpfer, Sigwalt, Hinz on the board By Larissa Chinwah
The slate of Carpentersville village board candidates supporting a crackdown on illegal immigrants swept Tuesday's village board election, according to unofficial results. Incumbents Paul Humpfer and Judy Sigwalt will keep their seats on the village board, while newcomer Keith Hinz will replace Trustee James Frost. Unofficial results showed Sigwalt with 1,519 votes, Humpfer with 1,490 votes and Hinz with 1,425 votes. Sherry Dobson tallied 1,359 votes, Laura Zambrano had 1,290 and Frost got 1,258, according to an unofficial count. Absentee ballots were not yet tallied. "I was apprehensive and I didn't know if I had the wherewithal to move forward with the campaign," said Hinz, a Community Unit District 300 construction manager. "This is a positive step forward." Hinz, Humpfer and Sigwalt ran as the All American Team slate. The trio supports an ordinance that would punish landlords and business owners who rent to or hire illegal immigrants. In addition, the three support making English the official language of the village, where the Hispanic population of more than 35,000 equates to about 40 percent. Humpfer and Sigwalt introduced their crackdown measure in a September. Trustees in October voted 4-3 to table the measure until litigation over similar legislation in other towns resolved. More than 3,000 people gathered for that meeting. Now that the proposed measure likely has the support of at least three trustees, Sigwalt said a discussion on the issue will happen. "You bet we are going to talk about this now," Sigwalt said. Just as the issue has sharply divided the village board and the village's residents alike, candidates aligned themselves on either side of the issue. Challengers Dobson, Zambrano and Frost, who had the support of Village President Bill Sarto and Otto Engineering President Tom Roeser, opposed the crackdown. But Tuesday's winners said immigration played only a small role in their victories. "We did so much walking and knocking on doors. We had so many good people help out," Humpfer said. "We were out-spent, they had more signs and more money, and the people of Carpentersville saw right through that." The election drew monitors from the federal Department of Justice, as well as members of two prominent Chicago-based Latino rights groups. Each sent representatives to monitor polling places to ensure all election information, ballots, and voting assistance information was available in Spanish. No problems were reported. |
Humpfer, Sigwalt, Hinz on C'ville board
By Larissa Chinwah
The slate of Carpentersville village board candidates supporting a crackdown on illegal aliens swept Tuesday's village board election, according to unofficial results. Incumbents Paul Humpfer and Judy Sigwalt will keep their seats on the village board, while newcomer Keith Hinz will replace Trustee James Frost. Unofficial results showed Sigwalt with 1,519 votes, Humpfer with 1,490 votes and Hinz with 1,425 votes. Sherry Dobson tallied 1,359 votes, Laura Zambrano had 1,290 and Frost got 1,258, according to an unofficial count. Absentee ballots were not yet tallied. "I was apprehensive and I didn't know if I had the wherewithal to move forward with the campaign," said Hinz, a Community Unit District 300 construction manager. "This is a positive step forward." Hinz, Humpfer and Sigwalt ran as the All American Team slate. The trio supports an ordinance that would punish landlords and business owners who rent to or hire illegal aliens. In addition, the three support making English the official language of the village, where the Hispanic population of more than 35,000 equates to about 40 percent. Humpfer and Sigwalt introduced their crackdown measure in September. Trustees in October voted 4-3 to table the measure until litigation over similar legislation in other towns resolved. More than 3,000 people gathered for that meeting. Now that the proposed measure likely has the support of at least three trustees, Sigwalt said a discussion on the issue will happen. "You bet we are going to talk about this now," Sigwalt said. Just as the issue has sharply divided the village board and the village's residents alike, candidates aligned themselves on either side of the issue. Challengers Dobson, Zambrano and Frost, who had the support of Village President Bill Sarto and Otto Engineering President Tom Roeser, opposed the crackdown. But Tuesday's winners said immigration played only a small role in their victories. "We did so much walking and knocking on doors. We had so many good people help out," Humpfer said. "We were out-spent, they had more signs and more money, and the people of Carpentersville saw right through that." The election drew monitors from the federal Department of Justice, as well as members of two prominent Chicago-based Latino rights groups. Each sent representatives to monitor polling places to ensure all election information, ballots, and voting assistance information was available in Spanish. No problems were reported [ except those reported by Fox Valley Citizens for Legal Immigration, which the Media ignored in their election coverage ]. |