An Assistant Cook County State's Attorney has agreed to send a monitor to three precincts in the 25th Ward's Chinatown for the runoff election on April 5 to prevent the kind of egregious electioneering and voter fraud reportedly seen on February 22.

The Assistant Cook County State's Attorney office said it will assign a staffer who is fluent in Chinese to work with the Chicago Board of Election Commissioners' field investigators to monitor events in the 14th, 16th and 18th precincts in the 25th Ward throughout the day on April 5. The office will also ask the Chicago Police Department to assign officers fluent in Cantonese and Mandarin to the precincts. The Cuahutemoc Morfin campaign said it, too, would have pollwatchers on hand fluent in those languages.

The Assistant Cook County State's Attorney received reports of electioneering in the precincts in question, all located in Chinatown, on February 22, including incidents of improper influence of voters by Danny Solis campaign precinct captains. There were also reports of election judges and poll watchers providing illegal voter assistance at the ballot box.

Because Tuesday's election between incumbent Ald. Daniel Solis and challenger Cuahutemoc Morfin is one of the most hotly contested runoffs in the city, Morfin Campaign Manager Rebecca Reynolds said, "we need to make sure that every single vote counts, and that no election judge or representative from the Solis campaign is able to use the same kind of unethical and illegal tactics to coerce voters that we saw in these precincts on February 22."