* Media advisory…
Champions of a measure to prohibit Illinois’ use of Kris Kobach’s flawed Crosscheck program are calling on Governor Rauner to sign Senate Bill 2273. Crosscheck is a flawed system that encourages voter suppression and fails to protect voter data.
The presser comes days after Illinois State Board of Elections officials requested confirmation of their suspicions that Illinois is the state named in special counsel Robert Mueller’s latest indictment regarding hacks by Russian intelligence officers which exposed the personal data of 500,000 Illinois voters.
The last day the Governor can act on the bill is Tuesday, July 17th.
WHO:
· Legislative sponsors including Rep. Ann Williams, Sen. Kwame Raoul and Sen. Bill Cunningham
· Legislative advocates including the ACLU and Indivisible Chicago
* I asked for an advance copy of the release…
At a press conference this morning, state senator and Democratic candidate for attorney general Kwame Raoul urged Governor Bruce Rauner to sign legislation removing Illinois from the Interstate Voter Registration Crosscheck Program. Tomorrow is the governor’s deadline to take action. Raoul gave the following statement:
“Amid growing concern over the integrity of our election process, Crosscheck is simply too great a risk for Illinois. With President Trump unwilling to safeguard voter privacy and members of his inner circle under investigation, we are duty-bound to protect our own voters and their data. The right to vote freely and privately is the bedrock of our democracy, and I call on Governor Rauner to sign this bill and get us out of Crosscheck.
Especially in light of new indictments indicating Illinois voters’ privacy was compromised by foreign adversaries, as attorney general, I pledge to aggressively investigate all threats to our state’s election system. The confidence our voters have in the fairness of our elections is one of the most valuable resources democracy has – and clearly one of the most vulnerable. I will not stand idly by while our elections fall under attack again.”
The Illinois State Board of Elections has stated that it is “very likely” the victim of a hack described in Friday’s indictments of 12 Russian officers suspected of meddling in the 2016 U.S. election. The indictments allege that the Russians stole names, addresses and drivers’ license numbers of affected voters. More than 500,000 Illinois voters’ data may have been exposed.
Tomorrow is the governor’s last day to take action on Senate Bill 2273, which Raoul sponsored along with State Representative Ann Williams. If it becomes law, the measure will end Illinois’ participation in the multistate Crosscheck voter registration database, which suspended its operations last month while under investigation by the Department of Homeland Security due to its vulnerability to breaches. The system has also been shown to enable vote suppression by returning false positives for duplicate registrations. The American Civil Liberties Union has filed suit against Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, who oversees Crosscheck, over the release of nearly 1,000 Kansan voters’ personal information, transmitted over unencrypted email. Kobach is a former co-chair of President Trump’s panel on voter fraud. Last fall, the State Board of Elections voted along party lines to stay in the Crosscheck system, despite security concerns.
Under SB 2273, Illinois would remain part of the Electronic Registration Information System (ERIC) database, which is used by 20 states and offers an efficient means of maintaining voter rolls with better procedural safeguards against disenfranchisement and without Crosscheck’s vulnerabilities.
The press conference with Rep. Williams, state Sen. Bill Cunningham (Chair of Senate Telecommunications and Information Technology Committee), Renato Marroti, ACLU Illinois and Indivisible Illinois [will be] streamed on Facebook Live, and a recording can be accessed at https://www.facebook.com/ACLUofIllinois/.
*** UPDATE *** Gov. Rauner was asked about this bill at an unrelated press conference today. His response..
That has really nothing to do with cyber attacks or safety or security, that’s a separate issue and I don’t see any reason that we should go out of that as a state.
* Related…
* Durbin not confident Illinois election systems are secure
* Durbin: More work needed to make sure Russian hack of voter database ‘never happens again’
* Illinois election officials: ‘Very likely’ state was target of Russian hackers
* News of Russian hackers targeting Illinois adds urgency to signing of SB 2273
- wordslinger - Monday, Jul 16, 18 @ 10:33 am:
We should toss in the bin anything associated with Kris Kobach. His misanthropy is only matched by his incompetence.
If you want to laugh until you cry, read the accounts of Kobach “defending” the Kansas voter-suppression law in federal court before a W-appointed judge.
With lawyerin’ like that, he could get you life in front of a firing squad for a speeding ticket.
https://www.kansascity.com/news/politics-government/article209268109.html
- VanillaMan - Monday, Jul 16, 18 @ 10:37 am:
A political stunt in search of reasoning.
- njt - Monday, Jul 16, 18 @ 10:44 am:
“in search of reasoning”
https://www.dropbox.com/s/fokd83nn4×6wuw9/OnePersonOneVote.pdf?dl=0
- walker - Monday, Jul 16, 18 @ 10:59 am:
The “reasoning” is fourfold:
CrossCheck has suspended operations due to security breaches.
There is a workable alternative used by other states.
The mission of Kolbach is purported to be prevention of voter fraud, but the committee he was appointed to run, folded from lack of evidence of widespread fraud, (and embarrassment. at being so blatantly partisan.)
Kolbach’s efforts in Kansas would have primarily suppressed Democratic votes, and proved indefensible in court.
Take your pick. Any two are probably mare than sufficient reasons.
- Rabid - Monday, Jul 16, 18 @ 10:59 am:
Rauner validates failure
- Precinct Captain - Monday, Jul 16, 18 @ 11:06 am:
The model of the modern Republican Party is minority rule and Southern Democrats 1877-1965. They don’t think they can win a free and fair election, so they’ll rig the game. Despicable.
- wordslinger - Monday, Jul 16, 18 @ 11:10 am:
–That has really nothing to do with cyber attacks or safety or security, that’s a separate issue and I don’t see any reason that we should go out of that as a state.–
Translation: “I’m goin’ to need all the help I can get.”
- titan - Monday, Jul 16, 18 @ 11:22 am:
It may be a moot point. At the end of 2017, Crosscheck was supposed to be undergoing a security revamp with a target of being going for the annual state data upload in late January (or shortly thereafter). Since then … /crickets/.
Crosscheck may have petered out on its own.
- Arsenal - Monday, Jul 16, 18 @ 11:25 am:
==Crosscheck may have petered out on its own.==
It absolutely has, so we will need to switch to something else…so why not get started?
- Arthur Andersen - Monday, Jul 16, 18 @ 11:32 am:
Agree with all the comments here, especially word’s, but I did have to shake my head and laugh a bit at Kwame’s hyperbolic remarks. Going to Moscow and stand up Vlad?
- DarkHorse - Monday, Jul 16, 18 @ 11:39 am:
Agree with Arthur Anderson on Kwame hyperbole. He’s just a weak candidate, as will become increasingly apparent as the AG campaign heats up.
- titan - Monday, Jul 16, 18 @ 11:44 am:
+++ - Arsenal - Monday, Jul 16, 18 @ 11:25 am:
==Crosscheck may have petered out on its own.==
It absolutely has, so we will need to switch to something else…so why not get started? +++
Illinois is already in the (much more highly regarded) ERIC system, which is growing fairly steadily (although it doesn’t yet have a couple of the immediately bordering states that were in Croscheck).
- VanillaMan - Monday, Jul 16, 18 @ 12:25 pm:
It’s a political stunt by a struggling candidate, but you guys fell for it.
Sad.
- Roman - Monday, Jul 16, 18 @ 2:41 pm:
Rauner may be opening himself to another fact-conflating attack from JB designed to tie him to Trump.
Crosscheck was developed by Trump’s “election integrity” czar, it is an absolute joke from a cybersecurity standpoint, and Russia has already successful breached Illinois voter data on Rauner’s watch.
An ad saying “Bruce Rauner exposed the name, date of birth, and social security number of every Illinois voter to Russian hackers” would actually be more intellectually honest the the immigration attack ad JB is currently running.
- Spinoza - Monday, Jul 16, 18 @ 5:16 pm:
Roman, I’d like to see that ad.
- wordslinger - Monday, Jul 16, 18 @ 5:41 pm:
–It’s a political stunt by a struggling candidate, but you guys fell for it.–
I wouldn’t call Rauner’s veto a stunt.
- Edgewater Family - Monday, Jul 16, 18 @ 6:19 pm:
Trump has already demonstrated an he will not protect Americans from Russian hacking. I hope Governor Rauner signs SB 2273 into law to protect Illinois residents.
- VanillaMan - Tuesday, Jul 17, 18 @ 8:23 am:
The President was told of the cyber hacking when it was happening a full year before his term ended, but told his cyber security team to “stand down” by Susan Rice. We know this through Congressional testimony.
So you are blaming the wrong president.