Local officials tackle election misinformation

Election officials sought to address election myths and disinformation during the Citizen Club forum held at the Hoogland Center for the Arts on Friday.

Kent Redfield, a retired professor of political science at University of Illinois Springfield, moderated the discussion with Sangamon County Clerk Don Gray, a Republican, and Matt Dietrich, spokesperson for the Illinois State Board of Elections.

The event was held as President Donald Trump pushes for placing the control of elections under federal authority.

Elections in the U.S. are managed and administered at the local level as described and protected under federal law and the U.S. Constitution, Redfield said.

Critics have blasted Trump for driving falsehoods about the validity and integrity of the election process, from claiming there are large waves of noncitizens voting in the elections to spewing doubt about the safety of voting by mail, although neither panelist referred to Trump’s efforts to discredit election results.

He’s issued several executive orders in pursuit of national oversight of elections, including one that called for the U.S. Post Office to take control of mail-in ballots.

On Sept 14, the U.S. Supreme Court let stand a previous ruling blocking the USPS from validating mail-in ballots. The order came at a time when there’s growing popularity in casting votes by mail-in ballots. 

Gray said 22,500 mail-in ballots were sent out on the first day of early voting last week.

“We’re to a point where we’re going to probably be casting about a third of our ballots by mail in advance of the election,” Gray said.

Gray said if a law dealing with mail-in ballots were to pass in the future, proper coordination between local authorities and the federal government would be necessary.

Illinois is a party to several lawsuits challenging Trump’s effort to assert control over elections.

Among them includes Trump’s order for state election authorities to hand over election data, which includes voters’ dates of birth, social security and driver’s license or state issued IDs numbers.

“We don’t have anything in federal or state statute that authorizes us to hand that data over to the Department of Justice or to any other agency,” Dietrich said.

He said the state provided the Department of Justice a list of names and ages that’s available to the public under Illinois election code.

Even so, the DOJ filed a lawsuit against the state. Dietrich said said the state won at the district court level, but he foresees the matter heading to the U.S. Supreme Court for a final decision.

On Friday, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of Trump’s national voter verification program. States can volunteer to participate in the program, which draws concern for instances of misidentifying citizens as not eligible to vote.

Registering to vote

Redfield asked the officials to address concerns that people who are not eligible to vote can end up on voter rolls.

Illinois state is one of 13 states in the country that doesn’t require a voter to show identification to cast a ballot.

Rather than ask for identification at the polls, election authorities require “two forms of ID, one with a current address” when registering to vote in person or prior to sending a mail-in ballot, Gray  said. 

Both election officials emphasized the reliance on the validity of the state-issued drivers license or state identification as one form of documentation for registering to vote.

“They’ve got the data and they’re able to vet the underlying pieces of information, such as your date of birth, your address, etc.,” Gray said.

If a new registered voter hasn’t provided documentation at the time of their application, then when they cast their ballot in person or prior to voting by mail, they’ll have to show some form of documentation, as described in the registration form.

Gray said the election authorities vet voters’ registration by checking their lists against the Illinois Secretary of State and the Social Security Administration.

People can register to vote on election day, but are still required to show proper documentation and cast the ballot right after.

“I have great confidence in the manner in which we go about doing all this. You should as well,” he added.

If registering online, the person must use the state’s portal, which requires entering a valid state ID or driver’s license number. When they seek to vote, the election judge will compare the signature given for the ballot application to the signature of record on a state-issued ID or driver’s license.

The last day to register online is Oct. 18.

No proof of rampant voter fraud

One myth that’s prevalent is the notion that there’s rampant voter fraud.

“I have never in my tenure as county clerk — over a decade-plus now — witnessed someone try and physically present themselves in a fraudulent manner to be someone else to cast a ballot,” Gray said.  

He said election judges are trained on validating a voter by comparing their signature they give to receive a ballot to the signature on file.

“It’s like a fingerprint to you,” Gray said.

If there are issues with matching the signature, and a majority of election judges agree with the assessment, then they may ask an individual to show an ID to validate who they are, Dietrich said.

Cybersecurity concerns

Regarding cybersecurity concerns, Dietrich said the Illinois State Board of Elections manages a program called Cyber Navigator that supports smaller election authorities with resources and training to help prevent a cyber attack.

He said all 108 election authorities transmit election data to the ISBE through the state’s private internet called Century Network.

As to concerns about the accuracy of the voting machines, Gray gave a recent example of their preciseness.

He recalled the 2024 Sangamon County Recorder race that Frank Lesko won by 31 votes. When the election clerk ran a sample to verify the votes, it produced the same result.

“It was 100% accurate to what we reported,” he said.