South Central Reporter

Illinois state Rep. Blaine Wilhour (R-Beecher City) contends that the Secretary of State's Automatic Voter Registration (AVR) system is one that invites the kind of confusion it is now experiencing in the aftermath of reports that nearly 600 non-citizens were mistakenly registered to vote in 2018 elections.

“I know the Democrats locally and nationally have no interest in securing the ballot,” he told the South Central Reporter. “And right now, here in Illinois we’re putting ourselves in a situation where nefarious actions could be there.”

According to WGN, as many as 574 non-citizens were wrongly registered to vote through the AVR system overseen by the Secretary of State’s Office. Thus far, the Illinois Board of Elections has confirmed that at least 19 of those non-citizens actually voted in 2018.

“Nothing is more important than assuring and preserving the integrity of the ballot,” Wilhour said. “We need to take strong steps to secure the vote. Why we don’t have stronger voter ID laws at the booth is completely beyond me. Right now, they’re saying 600 registered and 19 voted, but who knows what it really is? There has to be complete transparency for this process.”

Wilhour said he plans to closely monitor the situation, making sure voters are kept informed every step of the way.

"I don’t think we have enough information about this yet to say if anything about it is sinister, but there’s an easy way to make sure we don’t have this kind of problem again and that’s by enacting stricter voting laws," he said. "If you really want to secure the ballot, you should be doing voter ID.”