BLOOMINGTON – Over five hundred non-citizens were registered to vote mistakenly, the Illinois Secretary of State admitted in December.
The applicants applying for Illinois driver's licenses clearly selected “No” to an electronic attestation regarding citizenship, but were "mistakenly included in nightly batches of applications to the State Board of Elections," according to the Illinois State Board of Elections' letter.
Those faulty applications were then automatically forwarded to local election authorities registering those receiving drivers' licenses to vote – and, possibly, to be included in a local counties' jury pools.
But it's all okay now, the Board said.
"The SOS has corrected the programming error and is sending communication to these individuals letting them know they should contact you to cancel their registration and that they should not vote," the Board representative wrote in the notification.
Diane Benjamin of BLNNews, who shared the letter on her news site, writes:
The Secretary of State sent a letter to the State Board of Elections on December 18, 2019 stating 574 non-citizens had been registered to vote by the DMV when getting a driver’s license. Illinois allows illegals to get a driver’s license.
But while the mistake has been admitted, there's no easy remedy.
While the applicants said they weren't citizens at the time they were applying for a driver's license, they just may be citizens now. The local election authorities – if they're interested in making sure their voter rolls are accurate and legal – still have to jump through hoops to remove the names.
The letter says:
Since these applicants have indicated “No” to an attestation regarding citizenship, there is a strong possibility these individuals were not citizens at the time of their application, however, that does not necessarily mean they are not currently citizens. If you conclude that these individuals should not be registered to vote and wish to cancel their registration, please consult sections 4-18, 5-25, or 6-59 of the Illinois Election Code to properly afford the individual of their legal right to demonstrate cause why he or she should not have their registration cancelled.
According to the list made available, Cook County had 135 persons that are registered that shouldn't be, DuPage has 56, Lake has 54, Kane 31 and Will 33.
The city of Chicago had 124.
More at BLNNews.com
Voter registration in Illinois will close March 1, 2020 – and reopen March 19, 2020.
From the online voter registration website located at https://ova.elections.il.gov/
