From Board of Elections spokesperson Matt Dietrich…
Yes, the board voted 8-0 to withdraw from Crosscheck, though for some time we have been operating on the belief that Crosscheck was dormant and likely to remain so.
The main purpose of today’s action was to facilitate our creating a data sharing agreement with Indiana to help with voter list maintenance efforts in both states. Indiana’s statute allowed the state to enter into a data sharing agreement with Illinois in the event that we withdrew from Crosscheck but didn’t have specific language about creating such an arrangement if Illinois was still a member. In our initial talks with Indiana election officials this month, they indicated it would be easier (from a legal/technical standpoint) to craft an agreement if Illinois was officially not a member of Crosscheck.
You might recall that when the General Assembly last year passed its bill to remove Illinois from Crosscheck, it contained a clause allowing us to enter into a data sharing agreement with Indiana. That bill was vetoed by Gov. Rauner and an effort to override his veto in November was unsuccessful.
As things stand now, three of our neighboring states – Wisconsin, Missouri and Iowa – are members of Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC), which Michigan also recently joined. https://www.ericstates.org/ Kentucky also has expressed interest in joining ERIC.
We’re not sure how long it will take to get a data sharing system with Indiana in place but we’re already in contact.
