State Representative Dan Caulkins (R-Decatur) joined his Republican colleagues in the House to demand answers regarding the critical errors made by the Office of Illinois Secretary of State (SOS) registering 545 non-citizens to vote in Illinois. Caulkins supports an immediate legislative hearing regarding the state’s automated voter registration (AVR) program and a quick resolve to ensure these mistakes don’t happen again.
“The fact that the Secretary of State kept this a secret for 17 months is outrageous, said Rep. Caulkins. “When SOS found out they were registering non-citizens to vote, they should have notified the State Board of Elections and County Clerk’s immediately. I can’t help but think this is a cover-up. It makes me wonder what else are they trying to hide which is why I support a legislative hearing to determine what went wrong and a solution to fix it.”
Rep. Caulkins and his House Republican colleagues referenced a recently disclosed December 18, 2019 letter from the Secretary of State’s office to the Illinois State Board of Elections that voter registration information of 574 self-identified non-citizens was forwarded to the Board of Elections. That registration was in-turn forwarded to local election authorities for finalization of the voter registration process.
Rep. Caulkins added, “The lack of compliance with state law by the Secretary State’s office is concerning. Protecting the integrity of our electoral process should have been a top priority. The law is the law, if you are not a U.S. citizen, you can’t legally vote. It’s obvious a better system needs to be put into place and it should start with not registering non-citizens to vote.”