Defeated Normal Mayoral Candidate Marc Tiritilli has begun examining voter registration rolls and comparing them to signatures of people who voted in seven precincts during the April municipal election.
That's according to McLean County Clerk Kathy Michael. Michael said Mayor Chris Koos and his campaign manager are observing Tiritilli go through the exercise.
The work is in preparation for next week's discovery recount. The challenger Tiritilli has picked a quarter of the entire town to recount, or seven precincts.
Denise Cesario is the Director of Elections in the County Clerk's office.
"We will just basically do a retab mandated by the state of Illinois. We're going to take the seven precincts that they have selected, clear the memory cards, and run them through again to make sure we have the same tally of votes," said Cesario.
Tiritilli chose precincts including the south and central part of the town, the ISU campus, and the Ironwood subdivision on the north side of town. The precincts he chose for the retabulation include higher concentrations of under votes. Under votes are ballots on which the voter did not make any choice in a given contest, in this case for Mayor.
Tiritilli's team will check ballots next week for light markings next to his name which machines might not have picked up. Tiritilli lost to Incumbent Chris Koos in April by just 11 votes.
Cesario said she has faith in the validity of the original result.
"I have great confidence in our staff and our voters and we go to great detail to get everything in order. I'm not sure what he's looking at or if it is something he could go to the courts with, said Cesario.
Tiritilli is hoping to collect evidence in the recount and examination of voter signatures that would suggest a substantial likelihood of a different election result if proportionately extended to all the precincts in the Town of Normal.
Tiritilli would have to convince a judge that the evidence is strong enough to merit ordering a more expensive full recount of the ballots cast in the town.
The Discovery Recount will take place May 9-11.
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