Central Illinois county clerks want to answer the public’s questions about election security before the presidential election in November.
At a Thursday news conference on “ballot integrity,” representatives from regional election authorities took questions from the media and the public on topics ranging from voter turnout and mail-in voting, to tabulation practices and illegal votes.
One of the issues at the top of the clerks’ mind as election season ramps up is misinformation.
“Peoria County saw this just a few weeks ago,” said Peoria County Election Commission Executive Director Elizabeth Gannon. “I had an election judge contact me saying, ‘Hey, I got this really odd text message asking if, saying that I wasn’t signed up to vote by mail and to click on the link.’”
Gannon said the link led to a spoofed government website, a phishing attempt to gather personal information from concerned voters thinking they had forgotten a part of the vote-by-mail process.
Just earlier this week, the Illinois State Board of Elections put out a statement refuting a viral Facebook post that claimed election judges mark ballots they plan to throw out later, when in reality, election judges are required to initial each ballot as part of the voting process.
McLean County Clerk Kathy Michael said her office is planning a hotline for media members to call throughout the election, where staff can provide guidance and confirm or deny any rumors that begin to swirl.
Her office also has instituted the use of “social media monitors,” who keep an eye on sites like Facebook, X and Reddit and alert the office when they need to release a statement and nip misinformation in the bud.
“The main thing is going to be so that voters do not get discouraged to vote because of misinformation,” said Michael. “Because I think that’s the goal, is to keep people from voting, and we’ve got to stop that.”
Michael is predicting an all-time high on voter turnout, larger even than 2020. While the entire panel of clerks don’t necessarily share her prediction, they’re all prepared for high voter volume.
Non-citizen voters is another issue commonly raised during election season. The angles adopted by campaigns this year have shown that the 2024 election will be no different.
No clerk on the panel could provide an example of an instance where a non-citizen, successfully or unsuccessfully, voted in Tazewell, Peoria or McLean counties. The closest thing Gannon could think of was a person accidentally registering to vote mid-citizenship process.
“We created a letter stating, yes, this was a human error, that they registered to vote,” said Gannon. “They’ve never cast a ballot, and, as a result, we have removed them from the voter rolls.”
Michael acknowledged there is no feature of the system that confirms or denies someone’s citizenship right there at the polls, but there is a paper trail and consequences when clerks go through voter rolls to confirm registrations or certify the election.
And, she noted, signing an affidavit claiming to be an eligible voter when you’re not is a felony.
Tazewell County Clerk John Ackerman also pointed out you don’t need identification to vote, but you do need to be registered.
“They got here [to America.] They want to be here. The last thing they want to do is cross that line and have something occur that gets them removed,” he said. “You know, ‘how do we know that one political party is not paying them off to flood the votes, to get them in there?’ That party isn’t going to be able to maintain them here after they’re caught and deported.”
The clerks also addressed concerns about mail-in and early voting. For example, what’s stopping someone from doing mail-in voting and then coming in and voting a second time at the polls?
The answer to that, Ackerman said, also lies in voter rolls. Individual votes are recorded, so when a name appears twice, the clerk has to look into the vote before certifying any results.
Gannon said the process also is happening during the election, not just on the back end.
“If you are sent a vote-by-mail ballot, that is attached to your voter registration record,” she said. “And when you go to early vote, our poll books are going to say that you have been issued a vote-by-mail ballot. If you go on to election day and you have already voted, the election judges check you in the poll book and will say you have already early voted.”
Some concerns submitted by residents questioned the tabulation of votes by a county’s machines. Ackerman said the machines are publicly tested ahead of election day. In addition, Gannon explained that every county has to randomly re-tabulate 5% of voting precincts to check the results against the election night count.
On top of all that, Ackerman said county’s individually determine their vendor for their election equipment, with around eight different vendors providing equipment around the state. He said this makes it extremely difficult for an outside actor to conceivably “hack” the machines.
“You’d have to have endless amounts of different variations to go in and try to attack,” said Ackerman. “So it really creates more safety and security with that process and the equipment.”
One thing that all the clerks agree on is transparency. If you’re concerned about any of these issues, visit their offices and ask questions about them. Even better, said Michael, become an election judge and view the process first hand.
“We invite the public to come in and see us, any questions,” she said. “You want to look at our voting machines and test them out, come in and see us. Reach out to your local election authority because you’ll keep us on our toes and that helps everybody.”
Early voting starts Sept. 26. Mail-in voting has to be postmarked before election day and arrive at the county clerk’s office within 14 days of election day. The general election is Tuesday, Nov. 5.
You can find more information about Peoria County voting here, Tazewell County voting here and McLean County voting here.
