“It started with non-citizens being registered, then minors
being registered, and now actual citizens of legal voting age not being
registered. How much more evidence do we need that AVR has to be put on hold
and a thorough audit conducted?” said Rep. Butler. “These exact concerns were
expressed back in 2017 during the discussions of instituting an AVR program in
our state and these revelations underscore that those concerns were
well-founded. With the primary election happening in a week and the
presidential election in November, these egregious mistakes have to be corrected
before AVR is allowed to continue.”
Butler, Bourne and House Republicans first called for action
at the end of January when the first revelation that 574 self-identified
non-citizens were mistakenly registered to vote. U.S. Congressman Rodney Davis
joined House Republicans in that call and several public hearings have since
been held, but no action to put the AVR program on hold has been taken by the
Governor or the Democrat led General Assembly. In February, Butler and Bourne
filed House
Bill 5224 to suspend the AVR program until the problems with the
system are corrected. Now, House
Resolution 827 has been filed to call for a thorough audit to be
conducted by an outside, independent auditor.
“It has been over a month since I first called for
suspension of the Automatic Voter Registration system. With the revelation of
this latest error within Illinois’ AVR system, it’s past time for lawmakers to
take definitive steps to protect the integrity of our elections,” said Rep.
Bourne. “The wrongful rejection of 1,152 valid voter registrations is
unacceptable, and the latest in a series of problems that warrant the temporary
suspension of AVR until all issues are resolved. Access to fair and free
elections is a fundamental right, and there should be zero margin for error.
The rollout of AVR has been plagued with problems and it’s time for the General
Assembly to intervene.”
Besides the most recent revelation about the improperly
coded 1,152 valid voter registrations, the Secretary of State’s Office also
forwarded the information of some 4,700 16-year-olds through the AVR system to
the State Board of Elections for pre-registration. Fortunately, the Board of
Elections rejected most of those before they were registered.