Bloomington’s top elections official said Wednesday that existing safeguards – including one that checks for people voting in other states – helped identify a rare case of alleged voter fraud in the 2024 election.
Bloomington Election Commission [BEC] Executive Director Luke Stremlau said state election officials send them a list of people who may have voted in another state. That triggers a BEC inquiry.
“In this case, it was brought to me in that manner. It’s something that was flagged in both Bloomington and out-of-state [Wisconsin] as well,” Stremlau said.
Of the 37,786 votes cast in Bloomington in the November election, the 55-year-old woman now facing felony charges was the only problematic ballot, Stremlau said. She’s accused of voting twice in the November election – once by mail-in ballot in Wisconsin and then again in person in Bloomington. Stremlau said it’s actually the first case of alleged voter fraud in the three years he’s led the BEC.
BEC regularly obtains voter registration information from around Illinois and from the Electronic Registration Information Center [ERIC], Stremlau said. That’s a bipartisan, cross-state partnership that took millions of dollars and years to develop. Illinois is a member, along with 24 other states and the District of Columbia. Together these systems act with redundancy as safeguards for election integrity.
“Everyone should know: You only get to vote once. Any kind of manipulation of the system is punishable by a court of law,” Stremlau said.
Accidents do happen. For example, it’s possible that an older voter with memory problems would vote early during the 40-day period before Election Day, but then forget and try to vote again on Election Day, Stremlau said. But that older voter would be using a provisional ballot on Election Day, giving election officials time to stop and discard that ballot when the early ballot was discovered, he said.
“If it’s not caught on the front end, it will absolutely be caught on the back end,” Stremlau said.
McLean County has two election jurisdictions: The Bloomington Election Commission handles elections in the city, and the county clerk's office oversees everywhere else, including Normal. Both have said they welcome scrutiny but have expressed confidence in the integrity of local ballots.
For skeptics, Stremlau encouraged them to consider getting involved in the process, such as serving as an election judge.
“I’d venture to say that if anyone who’s insecure about the security of our elections, if they were to serve as an election judge one time, that would probably change their mind in regards to how safe our elections are,” he said.
