A Will County judge dismissed an election fraud case Thursday filed by the losing candidate in the 2022 race for Will County clerk that claimed mathematic formulas showed the final vote count was fraudulent.
Republican Gretchen Fritz filed the lawsuit Dec. 28, claiming she believes “mistakes and fraud have been committed in the casting and counting of ballots” in the race because her opponent, Democratic Will County Clerk Lauren Staley Ferry, received more votes than Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker.
Judge John Anderson approved a motion by Staley Ferry’s attorney, Burt Odelson, to dismiss the case. Anderson said he would issue a written order in the coming days.
“The judge obviously agreed that they didn’t plead facts … that I could answer,” Odelson said after the hearing.
Fritz’s attorney, David Shestokas, said he disagrees with the judge’s decision but reserved further comment until the judge issues his order.
“I’m happy that the judge dismissed the case because it was such a frivolous case,” Staley Ferry said.
The lawsuit cited an analysis by Walter Daugherity, senior lecturer emeritus in computer science and engineering with Texas A&M University, who determined the vote totals were “artificially contrived according to a predetermined plan or algorithm.”
It also relied on Edward Solomon, who the lawsuit states analyzed the Will County clerk election results and found they “are not the result of a free and fair election.”
Odelson, who has been an election law attorney for 50 years, said in court Thursday he had “never ever” seen a case like this one, which he said was not based on facts or presented specific allegations but seemingly came from a “cosmic ray from Mars.”
Odelson said Solomon has presented mathematical theories on elections that have been debunked in other election cases.
A previous analysis by Solomon is part of a defamation lawsuit brought by Dominion Voting Systems against One America News Network, after Solomon told the network the results in Fulton County, Georgia, for the 2020 presidential election “can only have been done by an algorithm.”
“It’s a waste of time. It’s a waste of effort. It’s a conspiracy,” Odelson said.
While the lawsuit argued Staley Ferry received more votes than Pritzker, Odelson said, it failed to mention that Fritz received more votes than Republican gubernatorial candidate Darren Bailey as well as Republican candidates for U.S. Senate, secretary of state and comptroller.
In election cases, Odelson said facts and specific allegations are presented. In this case, he said, theories and mathematical questions are presented without explaining who or how the alleged manipulation of the election took place.
“There’s nothing here. There’s nothing here to answer because they are theories,” Odelson said. “This is an ill prepared, bad faith petition.”
Shestokas said there is no statutory requirement to plead who, how and where election fraud occurred.
Anderson asked Shestokas if this case focuses solely on the clerk’s race. Shestokas said “the other elections are not at issue.”
Shestokas said there is “an evolving area of study” to detect election fraud through “election forensics.”
“Math is math. Math is factual,” Shestokas said. “At this point, no one is disputing the actual math.”
Anderson asked Shestokas how he should interpret the fact that Daugherity provided signed documentation of his work but Solomon did not. Shestokas agreed Solomon did not sign an affidavit, but stated “math is math.”
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“If Adolf Hitler says “2+2=4″ the world would agree with him even if they generally don’t,” Shestokas said.
Anderson asked Shestokas if the argument is that the algorithm influenced election machines.
“An algorithm can’t fill out the ballot, right? It seems to me that the only way an algorithm could change an election is through machines,” Anderson said.
Shestokas said the case does not state allegations of how the fraud happened, but compared the lawsuit to the role a coroner has in identifying a dead body. In election cases in Nevada and Arizona, Shestokas said those cases failed because the lawyers speculated as to how the election fraud happened.
“Our position is we have mathematical, forensic proof that the election was not chosen by the people,” Shestokas said. “It shouldn’t be dismissed because it’s convenient. It should be heard.”
While Shestokas argues the election wasn’t decided by the people, Odelson said he also doesn’t state who cast the ballots.
“There’s no mistakes, no fraud or irregularities,” Odelson said.
