McLean County Sheriff Matt Lane has confirmed his office is investigating allegations of election interference involving public school officials on the McLean County school sales tax referendum.

Each school district in McLean County voted to put the question on the April 1 ballot. It asks voters if they wish to add a 1% sales tax to most retail purchases, including gasoline and prepared food. It would not apply to groceries, medications, vehicles and professional services.

Lane did not provide details about the scope of the investigation, including whether subpoenas had been issued.

Last month, Dean Fletcher of Bloomington filed a complaint with the Illinois State Board of Education and the Regional Office of Education alleging school districts were violating election code by sharing the website April1cent.info that asked voters to “approve a 1% Illinois County Schools Facility Tax.”

Fletcher's initial complaint with the Regional Office of Education listed cited six school districts for linking to the April1cent website that was advocating for the tax, including District 87, Blue Ridge, Heyworth, LeRoy, Olympia and Tri-Valley.

Fletcher said he also reached out to the Illinois State Police Special Investigations Unit, the Illinois State Board of Elections and the Illinois Attorney General’s Public Integrity Bureau. All declined to investigate, he said.

Fletcher said after he submitted a complaint to the McLean County state’s attorney and later to the sheriff’s office, Sheriff Lane told him March 7 it was opening an investigation into the matter.

Illinois law forbids the use of public funds “to urge any elector to vote for or against any candidate or proposition.” The statute says first-time violators would be guilty of a Class B misdemeanor.

“It’s very explicit, the law says you can’t urge voters to vote yes or no… They use the verbiage ‘approve’ so it seems like a clear-cut case of election interference to me,” Fletcher said.

Fletcher claims school administrators throughout McLean County illegally coordinated with advocates who were working to get the referendum adopted, including retired District 87 superintendent Barry Reilly , the chair of the Vote Yes for McLean County Schools, which filed its statement of organization the Illinois State Board of Elections Feb. 23.

The group has received $21,000 in contributions, according to the Illinois State Board of Elections website.

Reilly said in an interview with WGLT on March 5 he was not a part of the organization at the time a complaint had been filed regarding the website language.

“We are not bound by those rules and laws that school districts have to follow,” Reilly said.

Emails provided to WGLT by Fletcher, who obtained them through a public records request, show conversations between Reilly and school district administrators throughout McLean County and the Regional Office of Education dating back to Jan. 6 discussing strategy to sell the proposed tax to the public.

“We will be sending this out… next week when we kick things off,” current District 87 Superintendent David Mouser said in a Jan. 27 email to Reilly referring to the April1cent.info website.

It's not clear who paid for the website.

Reilly declined to comment on the investigation. Mouser has not responded to requests for comment.

Fletcher said even if the investigation is unlikely to be concluded before the April 1 vote, he still hopes the inquiry serves as a “shot across the bow” to local governments.

“Regardless of the outcome April 1, I think it’s important that the taxpayers know what happened, [that] the taxpayers know if tax funds and [public] resources were used, to try to influence the way the [public] voted, which is the definition of election interference,” Fletcher said.

The sales tax is intended primarily to fund school facility improvements along with school security and mental health resources for public schools across McLean County.

A number of school districts, including District 87 and Unit 5 , have pledged to direct one-third of revenue toward property tax relief.

A majority of Illinois counties have adopted the sales tax. McLean County voters struck down a similar tax referendum in 2014.