Dupage Policy Journal

State Rep. Amy Grant (R-Wheaton) is sounding the alarm about the need for free and fair local elections.

“There is no room for error,” Grant said. “This year, lawmakers learned that the Secretary of State’s office accidentally registered 574 self-identified non-citizens to vote through Illinois’ Automatic Voter Registration (AVR) program. Of those, 545 completed the registration process, and we know that at least one non-citizen voted in an Illinois election after being registered in error. At about the same time, we also learned that 1,152 proper voter registrations were wrongly coded as non-voters.”

In Grant’s mind, it all adds up to the clear need for changes to the system.

“We also learned that state election officials had to intervene and halt the automatic registration of 4,700 16-year-olds whose information was wrongly sent to the State Board of Elections by the Secretary of State’s office,” she added. “Nowhere in our laws do we allow 16-year-olds to vote."

Grant argues lawmakers need to pull the plug on the AVR system, if not permanently at least until they can prove it is safe and fair to use.

“Despite these alarming instances within our voter registration system, Illinois Democrats took action in May on a massive expansion to the state’s vote by mail program,” she added in a post to her website. “Illinois already has some of the most permissive voting laws in the country and legislation approved by Democrats this year is ripe for fraud.”

In the end, Grant said she just wants to see a fair system where the results truly come to reflect the views and wishes of the voters.

“I support efforts to allow ballot access to every registered voter and I disapprove of voter suppression,” she said. “But I do not support an expansion to vote by mail when safeguards aren’t written into the legislation and while questions regarding the AVR program persist. I believe the failure to adequately address ongoing problems with AVR while massively expanding vote by mail threatens the integrity of the upcoming 2020 election and will cast a shadow of doubt over this November’s election results.”