Both election authorities in McLean County are sharing insight into how they monitor voter registration and remove information that is no longer accurate.
Last month, the Department of Justice [DOJ] requested information regarding statewide election procedures. The DOJ asked the Illinois State Board of Elections for a list of election officials responsible for maintaining voter registration lists between the 2022 midterm elections and the 2024 general election.
This comes as part of a wider push from the Trump administration to access more sensitive personal information from U.S. residents.
In May, the Department of Agriculture asked states for data on people who applied for aid under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program [SNAP] over the last five years. In June, health officials turned over information about millions of Medicaid recipients from select states to the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees immigration enforcement.
Trump administration officials contend stepping up data collection furthers efforts to curb waste, fraud and abuse.
The DOJ included a list of 32 counties it said reported they did not send out confirmation notices in the most recent Election Assistance Commission’s Election Administration and Voting Survey [EAVS]. Confirmation notices are part of maintaining voter registration lists.
McLean County was on that list, though county clerk Kathy Michael said that is incorrect, and she hopes her office can be removed from the list next week.
“We are awaiting their phone call so that we can indicate to them that we indeed do our purge, as it's called, every two years, mandated to clean and maintain the voter rolls. So we want to clear that up right away,” said Michael.
The DOJ is expected to call the county clerk’s office Monday about the issue. Michael said the Bloomington Election Commission [BEC] was not on the list.
How to 'purge' voter rolls
There is a combination of ways an election authority can remove registrations from the voter rolls, which is a list of all registered voters eligible to vote in an upcoming election within a particular jurisdiction. If a person's registration is no longer accurate, such as when they move to a new address, legally change their name or die, their name must be removed.
The State Board of Elections requires voter information cards to be sent to all registered voters. The cards provide updated information with a person's voting precinct, where their polling location is, and the elected officials that represent them.
Luke Stremlau, executive director of the Bloomington Election Commission, said they might be returned to sender if the registered voter is no longer living at the address listed.
“It does us no good if we don't get that mail back, and a lot of times, people just disregard it. It looks exactly like the card they got last time, so it just heads right to the garbage can,” said Stremlau. “But if you're holding them or just throwing them away for people who no longer live at your residence, it does not give us the best opportunity to make sure that we've got those rolls closed or changed.”
Voter information cards are not the only way the BEC or county clerk can keep voter rolls updated.
Government agencies — the county coroner’s office, the Department of Motor Vehicles, the Illinois Secretary of State’s office and agencies from other states — can provide info that helps to remove former registrations from the list.
The county coroner provides a weekly report to the county clerk’s office to aid in updating voter rolls. Michael’s office shares the list with the BEC when Bloomington residents are listed.
Welcoming healthy scrutiny
Efforts to show transparency are not new to the county clerk or the BEC. Tests of automatic tabulating equipment were made open to the public last October leading up to the general election.
Stremlau said the BEC continues to be compliant with state election code.
“It is my goal to have the cleanest voter rolls for this exact purpose, so that when someone asks questions, I can point to this and say, this is exactly how I can prove that we've done everything correctly,” he said.
While Michael said she has never seen the DOJ get involved in tracking voter data before, she welcomes the department's involvement to give an opportunity to provide transparency.
“I think the more scrutiny elections have, the better for everybody. It's when election authorities start shying away, like, 'What are you doing?’ and being offended and everything, that's when the red flag should come up,”she said.
