Ward official manipulated absentee votes: prosecutor

January 30, 2008
BY KARA SPAK Staff Reporter
Anish Eapen, ward superintendent for Ald. Bernard Stone (50th), used his badge and business cards to manipulate absentee voters in two hotly contested elections last year where Stone ultimately triumphed, a Cook County prosecutor said Tuesday.

Eapen, 37, and Armando Ramos, 34, appeared together in bond court Tuesday on charges of absentee ballot violations and mutilation of election materials.

Lynn McCarthy, Cook County assistant state's attorney, said Eapen misled voters over who could vote via absentee ballot. He also collected ballots from voters' homes, sat in the same room with voters as they voted and mailed the ballots for them, McCarthy said.

In one instance, Eapen marked a ballot for a voter before sealing an envelope and mailing it off, McCarthy said.

Eapen is on administrative leave from his job with the city's Streets and Sanitation Department.

Ramos solicited voters in their 50th Ward homes to vote absentee, McCarthy said, collecting completed ballots and mailing them for voters. In one instance, Ramos marked a ballot for a voter before taking the ballot from the voter's home.

Absentee voters are required to vote in secret, seal envelopes themselves and either drop ballots off in person or mail them to the Chicago Board of Elections.

Bond was set at $50,000 for Eapen and $40,000 for Ramos.



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