By Greg Bishop/Illinois Radio Network
SPRINGFIELD – Despite a motion to withdraw, Illinois will remain in the interstate Crosscheck voter registration database.
Illinois is a member of both the Interstate Voter Registration Crosscheck Program (Crosscheck) and the Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC). Both databases are used by various states, but not all, to compare voter registration information. The data is used to find if a voter is potentially registered in multiple jurisdictions.
All of Illinois’ neighbors are members of Crosscheck with the exception of Wisconsin, which is a member of ERIC. But Crosscheck has come under fire for not being secure. The company has said it is in the process of updating its database protocols with enhanced security.
Illinois State Board of Elections board member Charles Scholz motioned to withdraw from Crosscheck Monday during the board’s monthly meeting “because of my concern about the security of our voter file as used by other jurisdictions and the concerns about false positives being misused in other jurisdictions.”
The vote failed on a 4 to 4 tie, meaning Illinois remains in Crosscheck.
Sangamon County Clerk Don Gray said the Crosscheck system has been useful for his election authority. As to concerns Crosscheck is removing voters from the rolls, Gray said that’s not the case in Illinois.
“We take the additional measure in Sangamon to default down to our voter verification program, more commonly known as Show Cause or purge process, that we’re required to by Illinois statute,” Gray said.
That requires elections officials to send multiple correspondence to suspected double registrants before the voter file is purged, Gray said. Crosscheck does not have the ability to purge Illinois voters in the state’s decentralized election system.
Before supporting a move to have Illinois end its membership in Crosscheck, board member William McGuffage shared his concerns about Kris Kobach’s involvement with the interstate voter database used to find invalid voters.
“Mr. Kobach is running Crosscheck and he’s also the director of the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity,” McGuffage said, “what I call the bogus Trump commission.”
President Donald Trump announced the commission as a way to bring about better policies for election integrity. Critics contend it’s a political stunt and meant to disenfranchise voters.
Logan County Clerk Sally Turner regrets the politicization of the debate.
“What I don’t care for is hearing partisanship,” Turner said. “All of the county clerks and the elections authorities have one job to do and that is to make sure a voter is registered accurately and correctly.”
Turner said Crosscheck is useful for border counties whose residents are more likely to move in between states.
