Lake Forest Caucus leaders are urging members to support a bylaw amendment that would expand voting options beyond the current in-person system. The proposal, set for a vote at the October 14 annual meeting, comes amid fundraising needs and renewed debate over how the Caucus handles contested votes.
Following two public meetings this summer, Caucus President Regina Etherton wrote on August 24 that Caucus members would be able to vote on a bylaw change that would allow options beyond the current system of in-person voting.
She said the 43-member Caucus Committee (and the Executive Committee) has endorsed the proposed change.
“The Caucus Committee wants to make voting available to every Lake Forester who wants to participate, not only to those who are able to appear personally at the Gorton Center during particular hours on the day of voting,” Etherton wrote. “By expanding voting methods, the Caucus Committee will be able to facilitate future votes that are held by the Caucus Committee to be more representative of the Lake Forest population at large, rather than votes that are determined by a small minority of those who can make it to vote “in person.”
In a subsequent e-mail, Etherton said as long as members are registered to vote electronically, they would be eligible to vote over a computer or phone, by U.S. mail, or still in person if the proposed amendment receives the required two-thirds of the support of the general membership to secure passage.
If the measure passes, Etherton said the Caucus has five vendors bidding to provide the electronic voting and believes another bid is coming. She added that Caucus officials have engaged with the companies about the security of electronic voting.
“The Caucus has investigated the final vendors under consideration to ensure that each had proper protocols that guaranteed safety,” Etherton wrote.
The Caucus faces another hurdle as Etherton acknowledged the organization needs to raise another $15,000 to implement alternative voting quickly after the October annual meeting if the membership endorses the proposal.
The push for electronic voting comes after a turbulent period for the Caucus.
In 2022, the Caucus Committee endorsement of Stanford ‘Randy’ Tack for mayor was not endorsed by the general membership at the annual meeting, leading to some confusion as the bylaws were not clear on how to address the situation. Tack was subsequently elected in the 2023 general election.
After the Caucus leadership did not win general membership support on two subsequent votes, an ad hoc committee was established to review the bylaws, especially in the case of a “no” vote. Caucus officials previously indicated those bylaw changes would have gone before the members earlier this year, but that has yet to occur.
John Trkla, one of the founders of Lake Forest For Transparency, a local advocacy group, preferred the Caucus leadership to focus on proposals around another potential “no” vote.
“It has been nearly three years since the Caucus declared their bylaws non-binding and threw away the results of their own Annual Meeting vote. The Caucus’s priority should be bylaw reform, making Caucus Membership voting results binding. Why focus on electronic voting before voting results are binding to the Caucus? It seems like putting the cart before the horse, and we can only conclude that it’s a distraction from the goal. We don’t know why the Caucus is pushing for this first.”
Former City Manager Bob Kiely, who has been serving as a facilitator of the ad hoc committee, unanimously supported the concept of alternative voting methods, and that was part of its recommendations to the Caucus Committee.
Kiely noted he was not disturbed by the proposed schedule of the Caucus leadership.
“The ad hoc committee was not charged with the sequencing of which proposed bylaw amendments would be submitted to the general public,” he said. “I believe that the majority of the committee was satisfied knowing that if the alternative voting method was approved in October, then the question of the “No” vote would be placed before the community in early 2026.”
Etherton maintains the Caucus continues to plan for how to handle a ‘no’ vote.
“Assuming the amendment passes, once electronic voting is implemented, a survey will be sent to obtain input from the community at large as to its most favored alternative,” she wrote. The Caucus will then be able to determine which alternative “no” vote amendments are the most favored in the community and draft amendments taking into consideration the survey results.”
The Lake Forest Caucus has been in existence since 1935, whose main role is to vet and endorse residents seeking to serve on various city boards and commissions.
Candidates running with the support of the Caucus for elective office often run unopposed in the municipal elections.
