By Dave Dahl
SPRINGFIELD – Now it’s time for the federal government to look into the problems with Illinois’ automatic voter registration program. Hundreds of non-citizens were registered to vote. Only one did vote, but everybody at a hearing in Springfield agrees: that’s one too many.
“Legally, I am responsible. It is my authority to certify someone to voter rolls and give you your finalized, tabulated result,” said Sangamon County clerk Don Gray. “But it’s not that simple. We’re reliant on our federal and state players to do this properly, do it correctly, and have a confident, credible result for the public.”
“This was the first hearing where we have seen local election officials talk about the need to have a voice when it comes to implementing programs like AVR,” said U.S. Rep. Rodney Davis (R-Taylorville), who convened Monday’s listening session. “In the end, they are the final certifier of that information and make sure that that individual who may have registered to vote at a driver’s license facility or a DHS facility, that registration gets properly implemented.”
Davis is ranking member of the House Administration Committee and thus claims jurisdiction here.
The Illinois secretary of state’s office has described the problem as a computer programming glitch.
Dave Dahl can be reached at [email protected]
