Database to help ensure one vote each
Illegally voting more than once is riskier this year for Illinois residents, who will be checked against an online statewide database that's up and ready to go.
For the first time in a general election, the database will give election officials throughout the state a way to make sure voters cast only one ballot. As election authorities update their voter files after Nov. 4, the data will all be checked against the statewide database within four to six weeks, said Bob Saar, executive director of the DuPage Election Commission.
(Curtis Lehmkuhl/Sun-Times News Group)
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To voice concerns or complaints about activities going on at polling places, DuPage voters may contact the DuPage Election Commission at 630-407-5600 or the DuPage state's attorney's office at 630-407-8000. In Will County, voters may call the Election Fraud hot line at 815-727-8872.
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Voters who break the law shouldn't think they can hide, Saar said.
"This is the first general election where it's really online, working well," he said. "If anybody's thinking about voting in more than one location in Illinois, they're going to get caught."
To ensure the law is obeyed on Election Day, authorities in DuPage and Will counties are deploying law enforcement officers and state's attorneys who will spend the day visiting precincts. Two-person teams consisting of a state's attorney and a field rep will each be responsible for monitoring about 10 polling places each out of the 386 locations in DuPage and 446 locations in Will.
Along with staying on the alert for voters who present false identification, the investigators along with sheriff's deputies will enforce the state ban on trying to influence a voter within 100 feet of a polling place - the election law that is most frequently broken, said Will County Clerk Nancy Schultz Voots.
"Mainly they're going to make sure people are following the law about the campaign-free zone," Schultz Voots said. "That seems to be the biggest problem on Election Day."
Assistants to the Illinois attorney general also will monitor polling places as Election Day progresses, according to Attorney General Lisa Madigan. Madigan is dispatching 125 teams throughout northern Illinois and 41 teams to monitor downstate polling sites.
Both Saar and Schultz Voots said they are expecting record turnout since more residents registered to vote than ever before.
In four years, the count of registered voters in Will County has grown from 336,000 to 374,000 - and 40,000 voters have either registered or changed their address since the February primary, Schultz Voots said. Saar said he has 75,000 such transactions recorded since the primary, and there are now 551,000 voters registered in DuPage.
Saar estimates that 85 percent of eligible voters are registered. That number is up from 65 percent in 1996 and indicates that more people who show up at the polls will actually be registered, he said.
"Immediately you're going to have a lot more people going to the polls who are really registered," Saar said. "In the past, they would go to the polls and realize they weren't registered."
