Bloomington Election Commissioners said Tuesday that voter-fraud charges against a 55-year-old woman show that safeguards are in place to protect election integrity.
Suniti Sud of Bloomington was arrested Monday after being indicted on three counts of voting more than once. Voting records show Sud allegedly voted twice in the November election – once by mail-in ballot in Wisconsin and then again in person in Bloomington.
Bloomington Election Commissioners said they triggered an investigation “as soon as this case was brought to our attention,” although it’s unclear how and when that happened. The BEC says it first contacted the McLean County state’s attorney’s office. Bloomington Police then investigated starting in June, along with authorities in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, police said.
“Voter fraud is incredibly rare. During the November 2024 general election, there was only this one instance of multi-state participation out of 37,786 ballots cast,” Bloomington Board of Election Commissioners said in a statement. “Working together with true transparency, it shows that the safeguards in place will find voters who cast ballots in multiple jurisdictions.”
BEC Executive Director Luke Stremlau said Tuesday he’s preparing a statement and would be available for an interview on Wednesday.
The case is likely to rekindle local discourse about election integrity. President Trump and his allies have repeatedly pushed false claims that he won the 2020 election and that lots of noncitizens are voting. Those claims are not true. But the Trump administration continues to pursue sensitive voter data from states, including Illinois, to press the issue. Many Democrats and even some Republicans fear Trump wants to use the voter data to build a federal database of voters he can use to target political opponents or hype rare instances of noncitizen voting.
Trump has also long spread baseless claims about the security of mail ballots, and he’s said he wants to get rid of mail-in ballots and voting machines ahead of next year's midterm elections. Democrats have been significantly more likely to vote using mail-in ballots, compared to Republicans, since the 2020 election.
McLean County election officials have expressed confidence in the integrity of local ballots but have also welcomed scrutiny. McLean County has two election jurisdictions: Bloomington Election Commission handles elections in the city, and the county clerk's office oversees everywhere else, including Normal.
Voting more than once is a Class 3 felony.
WGLT has reached out to Sud with a request for comment.
