As the Department of Justice’s [DOJ] deadline for access to Illinois’ voter registration database nears, neither of McLean County’s election authorities have been asked to release any information from their voter rolls.
The DOJ is seeking the complete, unredacted database by Sept. 1. The information includes voters’ personal information such as date of birth, driver’s license numbers and partial Social Security numbers.
Luke Stremlau, executive director of the Bloomington Election Commission [BEC], said the DOJ is seeking information from the Illinois State Board of Elections [ISBE] itself, rather than any of the 109 local election authorities.
“Because Illinois is a bottom-up reporting state … we all get our numbers for voter registration, things like that and maintain our own voter rolls and then we sign off on that and send it to the state,” Stremlau said. “The state then compiles all of that information and then as far as the authorities at the bottom know, we have done our job.”
Kathy Michael, McLean County clerk, agrees. In early August, she was notified the DOJ would contact her office regarding its voter rolls, but the phone has yet to ring.
“So, what we will do, of course, is if and when we do get questions asked, we will check and see what legally we must provide and, of course, we will comply if our attorneys and State Board of Elections agrees that it is proper to do so,” said Michael. “Keeping in mind, we don’t have full Social Security numbers and things like that.”
Each of the state’s 109 election authorities is charged with maintaining accurate voter rolls. If every authority does its job, then the state will hold all the accurate data.
The DOJ has claimed the legal authority to demand the vote rolls, and said it wants to enforce federal laws requiring states to maintain the rolls as accurate and up to date. Stremlau said for his commission, their voter rolls are “incredibly well maintained.”
“As far as what they’re trying to ask for, I think it’s an overreach,” he said. “I’m not a lawyer, that’s something for legal minds to debate. I know that the State Board of Elections did give what they would give any … political action committee or any other member of the state of Illinois that can purchase the voter registration data.”
Michael said the McLean County clerk’s office welcomes scrutiny from citizens and, if lawful, the questions the DOJ has about voter rolls.
“And I do think scrutiny is important, to a point, of course, because I can’t speak for every other county in Illinois and the nation … but it’s very important that every election authority abide by the rules,” she said. “Now whether they all do or not, I don’t think it hurts to check, but I know that we do.”
Michael said ISBE is always cooperative and a good organization to work with, but they are strict with deadlines and voter information.
“And we have reports that we have to turn in, or you get in trouble if you don’t turn in your reports after an election,” she said. “You can’t have 100 people voted and we counted 100 votes and yet we only reported 50. There’s a check and balance in every election authority … if we’re not within a very close number, it doesn’t add up, we have to tell them why. And they will keep asking until they have to bring the attorneys in and make sure the numbers add up.”
Both McLean County election authorities are also required by ISBE to purge their voter rolls every two years — the act of cleaning up the database by updating addresses and removing voters who have moved or deceased.
Stremlau said BEC mails a voter information card.
“If we don’t get it back, we assume that person is still living at that address. If it gets returned to us, then we will go ahead and put them into inactive voter status and send them out another piece of mail saying that if they don’t contact, they will be removed or canceled from our voter rolls,” he said. “So, we are constantly getting information in whether it’s from the State Board of Elections or any other number of organizations to make sure that our voter rolls are as accurate as can be.”
Stremlau said one of the concerns of the Trump DOJ was the voting of noncitizens in U.S. elections. He said that is not something that is required to register a voter.
“The way registration works in Illinois, if you show up with two forms of identification, one with your name on it, one with your address on it, and you say you live at your address and you’re able to vote in that jurisdiction, you register in that jurisdiction,” said Stremlau. “It’s kind of a trust situation where, as the election authority, the voter signs an affidavit saying that they are a qualified voter, which includes the fact they are a citizen … and once they sign that document the trust then becomes on the part of the election authority to count that vote accurately.”
Stremlau said if someone votes illegally, that is not something they track and would be able to provide information on.
Mail-in voting
Last week, President Trump called for an end to mail-in voting, saying he would sign an executive order to bar states from using the ballots along with some voting machines. Legal experts say Trump does not have the authority to tell states how to run their elections.
Both Michael and Stremlau said their vote-by-mail systems are secure. Michael especially disagreed with the position of the Trump administration, calling it a violation of voters’ rights.
“It all boils down to the election authority and the scrutiny and the numbers have to add up, but I do object to putting everybody in the same group and saying mail-in voting is a fraud and it should be eliminated,” Michael said. “I think that takes away rights from voters.”
Michael said she would fight to keep mail-in voting in McLean County.
“I don’t think it’s going to happen, but let’s say it does,” she said “You’re taking away from disabled folks who can’t get to the polls, people at the last minute or have an emergency can vote by mail … military, I think they would cover the military overseas … why would that be safe but it’s not safe for anybody else to do that as well?”
Michael said her office has an open process regarding mail-in voting. She said anyone can come in and ask questions and observe the judging. Furthermore, the office hires election judges and staff members of both parties.
Stremlau expressed confidence in his vote-by-mail system too. He said it is error-free, and the Trump administration is looking for an issue which does not exist.
“A lot of the time it feels like this is a bandage looking for a wound, instead of a wound looking for a bandage. This is a solution to a problem we don’t have,” he said. “Each of the election authorities I’ve met and talked to about this, we all have a little different way of our workflow, but we all do it the same kind of way as far as collection of vote-by-mail ballots … and how to handle them in a secure chain of custody and how to make sure that everyone who has signed up for vote-by-mail ballots receives that vote-by-mail ballot.”
Stremlau said his office has faced claims of sending mail-in ballots to voters who did not ask for them or who have moved out of his jurisdiction. He said he does not have the budget to send such ballots. He said there have been zero instances of fraud in the vote-by-mail system since he began leading the BEC.
Stremlau said BEC has a list of about 8,500 voters on the permanent vote-by-mail list, who receive a paper ballot for every election. Michael said between 60 and 80% of voters served by the McLean County clerk utilize the system. She said in the 2024 general election, she sent 7,550 mail-in ballots, and 6,614 or 87% were returned.
ISBE spokesperson Matt Dietrich confirmed to WGLT the release of voter rolls is being handled by his office and they are complying with the DOJ. On Aug. 11, ISBE released a centralized statewide voter list, one they are to give to “a government entity for a governmental purpose.”
On Aug. 21, the DOJ was not satisfied with the first list of voter data, requesting each registrant’s full name, date of birth, residential address, driver’s license number or the last four digits of the registrant’s Social Security number. All fields are required to register to vote under the Help America Vote Act, which is how the election authorities have them.
After the DOJ denied a request for a three-week extension, citing that the voter registration data is already in a complete list, they extended the deadline to the current Sept. 1.
