Vote fraud not a concern in Kane County

While fears of voter fraud have been raised around the country -- and particularly in our eastern neighbor, Indiana -- this election season, Kane County Clerk John Cunningham said he hasn't encountered problems in Kane County.

Cunningham said his office is on the lookout for voter fraud on Election Day and all year round.

"It's really not an epidemic," he said Monday. "Most of the complaints I've gotten are unfounded."

Cunningham showed his breakout Monday of addresses where multiple people are registered to vote. If one address gets to about eight registrations or higher, it clicks off a red flag for the clerk's office to at least check out what that address is.

The highest in Kane County this year is 214 Walnut St. in St. Charles, where 24 people are registered.

That is the home for Lazarus House, a homeless shelter, and by law, someone who is homeless can register from there, Cunningham said. So those registration are legitimate, he said.

But he is concerned about 12 people who registered from the same business address on Randall Road in St. Charles. It is a strip mall, and Cunningham said he thinks people registered from there, using a work address.

Sometimes people try to do that. The practice is particularly prevalent with doctors, psychiatrists and people in the public safety profession, like police officers, who do not want their home addresses on a public registry.

But Cunningham said that is illegal, and it's possible any of those 12 people registered from the same mall that includes Krispy Kreme will have trouble when they try to vote Tuesday.

What is likely to happen is those people will be issued a provisional ballot -- standard for anyone whose registration or whose status to vote is in question. The clerk's office will check those out. It's unlikely, Cunningham said, that anyone who registered from a work address would be able to vote.

"It means we have to do a better job educating people," he said.

As of Election Day 2008, Cunningham said there are 30,000 registrations in Kane County that are suspended. His office will check them further, and purge them from the registration list if necessary.

The rest of the addresses check out as multiple-family dwellings, apartments or group homes. Cunningham said this indicates to him there is little attempt at mass, fraudulent registration in Kane.

"It shows there's not a conspiracy," he said.