Ensuring Secure and Accessible Elections for Illinois in 2018

In the intervening year, revelations have arisen that Russian groups utilized social media via ads and fake pages to spread misinformation and further polarize an already divided county. Additionally, Politico reported on October 9 that the hacker conference DEFCON discovered vulnerabilities in voting machines still in use in many states today.

These reports highlight potential vulnerabilities for Illinois elections, leading Illinois voters to wonder if their votes will count in 2018. All of these issues occur along with the implementation of the new Election Day Registration law and perennial concerns about poll worker training, early voting procedures, and poll book accuracy. Because of these uncertainties, it is important for voters to understand the most pressing challenges to election administration and how officials plan on overcoming them.

While the State Board of Elections can investigate complaints regarding non-compliance with election law, elections in Illinois are generally decentralized and left up to the county clerks and boards of elections to oversee. Some advocates express concern about the lack of oversight these local officials receive, but Bernadette Matthews, Assistant Executive Director at the State Board of Elections, says the Board is limited by existing election law.

“The Election Code does not grant the State Board of Elections the authority to conduct audits on elections administration, nor does it define what such an audit would entail,” Matthews explained, “Therefore, the State Board of Elections does not ‘audit’ [election] administration generally.”

This limitation in state law prevents the Board from conducting many oversight actions, like verifying election worker training and ensuring provisional ballots are handled properly.

Gray and Orr each emphasized separate challenges in getting EDR to their counties’ residents. Orr noted that after providing a pilot program in 2014, “the biggest hurdle of Election Day Registration [in 2016] involved the volatility of the lawsuit that had this measure in court in the months leading up to the November Election.”

The lawsuit in question was brought by the Liberty Justice Center and alleged EDR unfairly disadvantaged voters in smaller counties because it does not require counties with population less than 100,000 to provide the

Gray said, “the trick for us in implementing [Election Day registration] is getting it right,” highlighting security as a top priority in creating a plan to roll out EDR.

The Sangamon County Clerk laid out his county’s strategy to effectively allow voters to register on Election Day, while protecting the “core value of one person, one vote.” A key feature of the strategy was the transition to electronic poll books and encrypted registration software, along with recruitment of additional, tech-savvy poll workers to facilitate EDR. Clerk Orr described a similar process of adding resources to polling places in Cook County in 2016.

For counties with more limited resources, both in personnel and in funding, such transitions and additional costs represent significant burdens to implementing the law. However, both Gray and Orr support the law for the increased access it provides for voter participation. Orr specifically notes that he has seen a high demand for EDR and encourages smaller counties to provide it in every precinct, even if they are not legally required to do so.

Cook County Clerk David Orr is a strong proponent of the law. In a statement on the signing of the Automatic Voter Registration Bill, Orr praised the law as “a good government bill” that “cuts costs associated with paper-based voter registration, and is a natural registration fraud fighter.”

Dave Drucker, spokesman for Secretary of State Jesse White, also says the Secretary strongly supports AVR and is pleased it received bipartisan support. White’s office is responsible for processing driver’s license and state ID applications, which will be the main area of implementation for AVR.

However, a well-planned execution is important for producing these benefits before the 2018 General Election. Nathan Maddox, Legal Counsel in the Secretary of State’s office, described the implementation process for ICPR, citing technical and financial challenges to providing AVR.

According to Maddox, everyone who submits an application for ID at a Secretary of State office right now is offered the chance to use the same application to register to vote. With the passage of the new law, the Secretary of State and State Board of Elections offices are working together to create an electronic voter registration database that workers processing ID applications can use to inform applicants of their registration status. The new system will also allow those workers to submit registration applications to local election officials on behalf of the applications automatically.

The major challenge in creating this new system to facilitate AVR is the lack of funding for the project. Despite AVR itself being codified at the end of August, Maddox said that he was not aware of any money appropriated to the State Board of Elections or the Secretary of State’s office to implement the law. Abe Scarr, Director of Illinois PIRG, told ICPR the ongoing budget battle at the time prevented funds from being allocated to AVR in a separate appropriation bill, which would have been required.

However, Illinois PIRG and other groups are working with the State Board of Elections to advance a supplemental appropriations bill for AVR, according to Scarr. Without adequate funding, the Board and Secretary of State’s office will need more time to implement a secure and effective system, Nathan Maddox explained.

Additionally, even with an implementation date of July or August 2018 for this new method of communication between offices, registration will not be truly “automatic” until January 2019, when Illinois allows residents to apply for state IDs at a new federal standard called REAL ID. At that point, applications for driver’s licenses at a REAL ID standard will be automatically used to register the applicant, unless they specifically opt-out from the registration. All regular applications will continue to be handled under the current process where applicants opt-in to registration.

Despite the technical and financial details, Dave Drucker gave an optimistic assessment of implementation, saying “[the Secretary of State’s office] is doing everything it can to implement [Automatic Voter Registration] well,” and “[the Secretary’s office] has a good working relationship with the State Board of Elections.”

However, the requirement that all voting machines in Illinois produce a paper trail that can be audited significantly reduces the threat of deliberate hacking into machines, especially since this paper trail allows voters to verify the ballot counted on the machine matches the ballot they intended to cast. Additionally, the Illinois Election Code requires the paper trails produced by voting machines to be audited after every election to ensure that machine totals match actual vote counts.

The more pressing concerns involving voting machines surround news stories like one published by NPR leading up to the 2016 General Election. Amidst reports of “vote switching” by machines, officials looked into the possible that they were being hacked. Instead, they found that the “vote switching” in those reports were caused by outdated machines with worn-down touchscreens, raising concerns over the aging election infrastructure in the US.

A handful of voting machine models are used in Illinois, with many jurisdictions still using paper ballots counted by machine. Most of the current machines in use, including the touchscreen models, are over a decade old, having been purchased using federal funds provided to update machines after the 2000 presidential election.

Despite their age, Don Gray has “great confidence in the voting equipment,” saying it is “the right form of equipment for the needs of our world today.” He explained his optimism, saying jurisdictions, including Sangamon County, do their best to work with vendors to ensure that machines are well-maintained and constantly updated. These efforts help extend the lifespan of the machines.

“We are always ready for new federal or state funds to upgrade our equipment, though,” Gray said.

ICPR is committed to ensuring Illinois voters have confidence in the 2018 elections by listening to voter concerns and advocating best practices in all 109 election jurisdictions. ICPR and the League of Women Voters Illinois are hosting panels on October 26 and 30 for voters to hear experts discuss how to ensure secure and accessible elections. These panels will also give the public the opportunity to voice their concerns to the panels, which include representatives from a range of elected officials, election administrators, and voter advocates.

These groups represent key stakeholders in Illinois elections. Over the coming months, ICPR will be working with these groups to find effective strategies for ensuring elections in 2018 and beyond provide Illinois with a strong and inclusive democracy. However, a strong democracy requires a broad coalition of engaged citizens, so ICPR encourages Illinoisans to pay attention to how elections are run in their areas, and speak out when they see ways elections can be improved.