A push to eliminate the elected office of McLean County auditor has failed for the second time in a decade, according to unofficial results from Tuesday's election. Around 55% of voters opposed the ballot question.
That means current internal auditor Michelle Anderson will remain in the job. She was up for reelection on this year’s ballot and ran unopposed. Unofficial results in Bloomington and the rest of McLean County show Anderson getting just under 73% of votes, with the remainder abstaining from a vote.
She did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
Only a few people publicly opposed the referendum.
Meanwhile, multiple nonpartisan groups started a Vote Yes campaign, and several McLean County Board candidates and some members expressed support of the referendum. A part of a Vote Yes contingent’s platform even became that the issue had bipartisan support. [That wasn’t the case when this issue was on the ballot a decade ago when there was public opposition.]
Still, the ballot question failed by nearly 7,600 votes, or about 10 percentage points.
Laurie Wollrab is president of the League of Women Voters of McLean County — one of the nonpartisan groups that urged people to vote yes on the referendum. She spoke to WGLT after the results came out.
“From my point of view, we lost an opportunity to save $100,000 on a duplicative service,” said Wollrab, alluding to the internal auditor’s total compensation in 2023, which was just over that amount. “But you know, that's what the people voted for, so that's how it'll be.”
The League kept Anderson out of its arguments for the referendum, focusing on policy over an individual for its endorsement. However, Wollrab pointed out the auditor’s office has had issues in the past.
“I think the people should try to keep an eye on this,” she said. “It's very difficult for the average voter to know what's going on, and you know … in my opinion, the county would have been better off had the position been eliminated.”
Recently, the county has had issues getting Anderson to approve grants and bills, which jeopardized some of the county’s vendor and community partner relationships. Anderson also has been called out previously for suddenly changing bookkeeping practices.
Dennis Grundler, head of the McLean County Republicans, said he commends Anderson for maintaining the office.
"The people have spoken... and obviously they want government oversight," he said, adding that he thinks every position, including auditor, should be elected by the public.
Patrick Cortesi, the McLean County Democrats chair, said he respects the public's decision to keep an elected auditor but thinks "there's room for improvement in that position." He added that having the role hired-in might have given the county more control in situations where the auditor is not completing tasks.
Having the referendum on the same ballot as a U.S. presidential race also probably didn't help the cause, Cortesi said.
"I think it kind of got lost in the shuffle... and it was hard to explain to some people on the surface," he said, adding that if the McLean County Board wants to revisit the issue, he'd recommend putting it on a less popular ballot next time.
