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* Some context is below…
Steve Sandvoss
Executive Director, Illinois State Board of Elections 2329 S. MacArthur Blvd.
Springfield, IL, 62704Executive Director Sandvoss,
We write to you today to express our deep concern about how Illinois voter registration data is used, shared, and protected outside of the State of Illinois. We urge the Board to end the state’s participation in the Interstate Voter Registration Crosscheck System (“Crosscheck”) and to refuse to comply with the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity’s second request for voter registration data.
Continued participation in Crosscheck poses several risks. The data shared with Crosscheck includes personal identifying information beyond what is normally shared with political parties, such as the last four digits of social security numbers. Crosscheck creates a central repository for voter data from over two dozen states. Portions of this data are then shared with the participating states. Both of these scenarios expose over 8 million Illinoisans to the risk of identity theft if hacked.
More concerning is the fact that Crosscheck is administered by Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach who has a documented history of authoring anti-immigration legislation and advocating for laws that disproportionately disenfranchise people of color, the young, and those with low incomes. Since taking over administration of Crosscheck, Kobach has transformed what was once a legitimate tool for voter roll maintenance into a propaganda machine for voter suppression efforts.
When Crosscheck returned 400,000 potential voter registration matches to Illinois, based on nothing other than first name, last name, and date of birth, Kobach labeled these “potential duplicate voters” despite the fact that he is well aware most records were not matches on the same people, let alone actual duplicate voters. The data analysis may be free, but at what cost to voters? As the saying goes, “if you’re not paying, you’re the product”. Ultimately states are being used to provide the data necessary to manufacture statistics to justify new voter identification laws and to make it harder for some people to vote.
Kobach now serves as Vice Chair of the Presidential Commission which has the same objective as Crosscheck: use intentionally poor data analysis techniques to create misleading statistics which help to perpetuate the myth of widespread voter fraud and to further an agenda of voter suppression.
Voting is one of the most fundamental rights and exercises of power available to the American people. We trust that the Board will do everything in its power to protect Illinoisans’ personal information and the integrity of our elections. While Illinois has same day voter registration, many states using Crosscheck data do not. Every year Crosscheck puts millions of registered voters across the country on Kobach’s target list of “potential duplicate voters”. Simply by being on the list, people face an increased risk of having their registration wrongly inactivated or cancelled — Illinois must stop supplying over 8 million records that are used to disenfranchise our fellow Americans.
There are currently more secure and reliable systems available to maintain voter registration rolls, such as ERIC, which the Illinois legislature has already mandated the state to join. We again urge the Board to consider the societal impact of Crosscheck both within and outside of Illinois when weighing continued participation in this program and to refuse to legitimize the Presidential Commission by providing data that will be used to manufacture fraudulent statistics.
Sincerely,
State Representative Will Guzzardi
State Representative Linda Chapa Lavia
State Representative Mary E. Flowers
State Representative Elizabeth Hernandez
State Representative Carol Ammons
State Representative John D’Amico
State Representative Robyn Gabel
State Representative Jay Hoffman
State Representative Kelly Burke
State Representative Laura Fine
State Representative Greg Harris
State Representative Camille Lilly
State Representative Theresa Mah
State Representative Anna Moeller
State Representative Michelle Mussman
State Representative Carol Sente
State Representative Juliana Stratton
State Representative Arthur Turner
State Representative Emanuel Chris Welch
In theory, the program is supposed to detect possible cases of people voting in multiple locations. But academics and states that use the program have found that its results are overrun with false positives, creating a high risk of disenfranchising legal voters. A statistical analysis of the program published earlier this year by researchers at Stanford, Harvard, University of Pennsylvania and Microsoft, for instance, found that Crosscheck “would eliminate about 200 registrations used to cast legitimate votes for every one registration used to cast a double vote.” […]
Along with 18 other states plus D.C., Minnesota has instead opted to join the Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC), a separate voter data program started in 2012. ERIC draws on a much wider array of data sources than Crosscheck, including motor vehicle registration data, Social Security death records, and Postal Service data.
“Look at what ERIC’s doing. That’s the way you clean up the voting rolls,” Simon said. “It’s anonymized data, and you don’t have nearly the problem with false positives.”
Illinois is an ERIC member.
posted by Rich Miller
Friday, Oct 13, 17 @ 2:03 pm
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If Trump wasn’t president, would this really be an issue? Oh please.
Comment by VanillaMan Friday, Oct 13, 17 @ 2:08 pm
If Illinois is a member of ERIC, why aren’t we using it?
Comment by ah Friday, Oct 13, 17 @ 2:11 pm
” voting is one of the most fundamental rights and exercise of power available to the American people” Common Sense use an ID
Comment by Wow Friday, Oct 13, 17 @ 2:14 pm
Eliminating 200 valid registrations for every one duplicate? Sounds like a high cost imposed upon law-abiding citizens. If this were guns we were talking about, instead of voter registration, our conservative friends would be up in arms.
Comment by anon2 Friday, Oct 13, 17 @ 2:18 pm
=== If Trump wasn’t president, would this really be an issue? ===
Yes. Poor results of any government program need to be addressed. As noted by the researchers, Crosscheck looks extremely flawed.
Comment by Norseman Friday, Oct 13, 17 @ 2:22 pm
Well, yeah. This might not be a highlighted issue if Trump lost the election but it should be. Your name, address, last four of your social, and birth date are being put at risk of being hacked, as well as being misused by the State of Illinois and the State of Kansas. This isn’t a partisan issue. It’s a data privacy and cyber security issue.
Comment by Getafterit Guy Friday, Oct 13, 17 @ 2:31 pm
Not only is it a privacy issue, but the Crosscheck system flags 1 in 6 Latino Americans, 1 in 7 Asian American, and 1 in 9 African Americans based on naming conventions. Think, Rodriguez, Kim, Washington. It is at its core level a discriminatory program. The NVRA (National Voter Registration Act) of 1993 clearly states in Section 8(b)(1) that states may not use voter registration maintenance programs that discriminate. The program is illegal and should be eliminated from all participating states, but especially Illinois.
Comment by getafteritguy Friday, Oct 13, 17 @ 2:35 pm
Am I to assume that these folks, that fear the last 4 digits of SSN being shared, are working hard on reigning in the Equifax breaches?
The only reason this is even brought up is to provide cover for proponents of illegal immigration.
IDs, interstate reconciliations, master death file reconciliations, etc., are imperative to sanctifying the American voting process.
Comment by cdog Friday, Oct 13, 17 @ 3:41 pm
==== If Trump wasn’t president, would this really be an issue? ===
Yes. Poor results of any government program need to be addressed. As noted by the researchers, Crosscheck looks extremely flawed.=
So flawed that, as Rich pointed out, a different, more comprehensive, and more secure system was created just a few years after Crosscheck that Illinois also uses. At this point using Crosscheck is redundant as well as dangerous.
Comment by SweetLou86 Friday, Oct 13, 17 @ 3:42 pm
==are imperative to sanctifying the American voting process.==
Really? I would think actual known threats like, oh, I don’t know, Russians hacking into voter files and voting systems might be a bit more of a priority.
Or, we can continue to go down the hysteria of illegals voting rabbit hole.
Comment by Demoralized Friday, Oct 13, 17 @ 4:21 pm
cdog - ID laws, proof of citizenship laws, have been statistically shown restrict legal voters from their right to vote. That’s not acceptable. Lets say a program were devised to target your specific right to vote. In that circumstance I would wager that you would be up in arms fighting for your right. Crosscheck is not an interstate maintenance tool. It is a partisan propaganda tool that return over 99% false positive results and has been developed to perpetuate a lie. The instance of voter fraud in this country is a statistical non-event at 0.002 of a percent.
Comment by getafteritguy Friday, Oct 13, 17 @ 4:28 pm
ID laws, proof of citizenship laws, have been statistically shown restrict legal voters from their right to vote. That’s not acceptable. Lets say a program were devised to target your specific right to vote. In that circumstance I would wager that you would be up in arms fighting for your right. Crosscheck is not an interstate maintenance tool. It is a partisan propaganda tool that return over 99% false positive results and has been developed to perpetuate a lie. The instance of voter fraud in this country is a statistical non-event at 0.002 of a percent.
Comment by Anonymous Friday, Oct 13, 17 @ 4:29 pm
==If Trump wasn’t president, would this really be an issue?==
You mean the guy who lost by 2,864,974 votes?
Comment by Anonymous Friday, Oct 13, 17 @ 5:06 pm
Why can’t you investigate Russian hacking and election fraud through double voting and illegal immigrants voting at the same time?
Comment by Lucky Pierre Friday, Oct 13, 17 @ 5:13 pm
The 200 to 1 figure is simply made up. I’ve used the list for my County. The ratio is about 1 to 1. San lastb4 is provided if available. Some mismatcchest turn out to be good matches muddled by typos.
It’s not a perfect program. But critics should point to some County using the data wrongly before asserting mere “potential duplicates” are actually being purged.
Comment by Saluki staffer Monday, Oct 16, 17 @ 9:04 am
San lastb4=ssn last 4. Sorry.
Comment by Saluki staffer Monday, Oct 16, 17 @ 9:05 am
Actually Saluki Staffer, the 200 to 1 figure was generated by the One Person One Vote report written by researchers at Harvard, Yale, Penn, Standford and Microsoft. You know…a group of thinkers and yes….the 200 legal voters purged to find 1 instance of potential double voting or fraud is indeed real. Take a little bit of time and read the report. It will be enlightening for you.
Comment by getafteritguy Tuesday, Oct 17, 17 @ 11:46 pm
The bigger argument here is that the state has legislated to be participants in the ERIC program. A much for accurate tool for actual voter roll maintenance and no so much a tool to enhance propaganda. We don’t need two programs to maintain the voter rolls, particularly when one is not actually doing that and is voluntary, so perhaps its time for the ISBE to follow….you know…the law and get ERIC up and running and end the Crosscheck program which has gross cyber security vulnerabilities.
Comment by getafteritguy Tuesday, Oct 17, 17 @ 11:51 pm