Dupage Policy Journal

With only days remaining before voters go to the polls, state Rep. Amy Grant (R-Wheaton) is one of several GOP lawmakers now expressing concerns about vote-by-mail requirements.

To cut down on potential fraud, Grant has thrown her support behind a bill proposed by state Rep. Deanne Mazzochi (R-Elmhurst), which obligates county clerks to take the deceased off the voter rolls.

“The vote-by-mail expansion was fast-tracked through our legislative process and the majority party excoriated our efforts to improve their bill by adding protective measures,” Grant said. “I appreciate that the DuPage County Clerk’s office has worked with Bob Berlin to share information about the fraudulent applications, and I hope every individual behind these illegal ballot requests faces harsh consequences for undermining the integrity of our voting process.”

Interest in Mazzochi’s reform measure has again sprang to the forefront after DuPage County State’s Attorney Bob Berlin recently announced that his office has been notified of at least nine instances of voter fraud stemming from vote by mail ballot requests from the dead.

New vote-by-mail standards officially went into effect this year when Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed Senate Bill 1863 into law as Public Act 101-0642. The measure paved the way for mail ballot applications to be shipped to an estimated 5 million voters and for the Secretary of State’s office to mail multiple follow-up reminders to those who had not returned their applications. Critics charge the measure does little to protect the integrity of the ballot when it comes to such abuses as ballot tampering or voter fraud, and includes no safeguards to prevent vote-by-mail ballot harvesting.

Grant recently took Democratic leaders in Springfield to task over the growing practice of not moving on Republican-backed bills she views as being in the best interest of all.

“Right now, the House Republican Caucus has 59 different ethics reform bills that have been filed in the current 101st General Assembly,” she said. “Not one of them has been granted a hearing and not one of them has been brought to the floor for a vote.”