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Legislative Dems push bill to withdraw from Crosscheck

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Illinois

* AP…

Democratic state lawmakers announced a plan Thursday to halt Illinois’ participation in a controversial multi-state voter registration database after efforts to persuade the State Board of Elections failed.

The legislation would remove Illinois from the Kansas-run Interstate Voter Registration Crosscheck Program, a free and voluntary program that helps states determine if voters are registered in more than one state.

However, advocacy groups in Illinois and elsewhere argue Crosscheck isn’t secure and could contribute to voter suppression. They’ve also raised questions about the partisan ties of Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach. He oversees Crosscheck and is a chairman of President Donald Trump’s election fraud commission, which is investigating unsubstantiated claims that millions voted illegally in 2016.

Advocacy groups including Indivisible Chicago and the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois pushed for a recent legislative hearing where an expert pointed to security flaws with emailed passwords and unsecured servers storing voters’ names and dates of birth. […]

Also, there isn’t yet bipartisan support. A message left for Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner’s spokeswoman wasn’t immediately returned Thursday. The State Board of Elections was split 4-4 on party lines to exit the program.

* Press release…

Crosscheck, which was pioneered by Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, is seen by many as nothing more than an attempt to keep minorities from voting.

Senator Raoul has made his opposition to the racially-biased program clear, calling for the state to cease using it at once.

“Crosscheck can be used to knock valid voters off the rolls, and it disproportionately impacts minority voters, who are more likely to share last names and be flagged by the system,” Raoul said. “That flies in the face of the voter protection policies we have embraced in Illinois.”

Earlier this month, a joint committee heard testimony from Shawn Davis, a faculty member at the Illinois Institute of Technology Center for Cyber Security and Forensics Education. Davis testified that the Crosscheck system has several security concerns that make private personal information easily accessible. While most websites handling sensitive information use secure file transmission networks called SFTPs, Crosscheck uses an unsecured network system.

Senator Cunningham says the state should address these concerns by leaving Crosscheck to protect voter information.

* WRSP…

That’s one of the state’s two voter database systems used to identify voters who are registered in more than one state.

The other is the Electronic Registration Information Center, commonly called ERIC. […]

“When you look at the security between two of the systems, the ERIC system, and the Crosscheck system, it is evident that Crosscheck is a far inferior program that makes data susceptible to hackers,” Sen. Michael Hastings, D-Tinley Park, said. […]

Over half the states in the union currently use the International Crosscheck system and 16 states and Washington, D.C. use the ERIC system.

One of the arguments people employ on behalf of staying in Crosscheck is that ERIC only has a handful of participants and neighboring states don’t use it, perhaps because it costs money.

posted by Rich Miller
Friday, Dec 1, 17 @ 10:52 am

Comments

We should steer clear of anything from Kansas’ Kris Kobach.

Comment by wordslinger Friday, Dec 1, 17 @ 11:28 am
==- wordslinger - Friday, Dec 1, 17 @ 11:28 am:==

Preach

Comment by Precinct Captain Friday, Dec 1, 17 @ 11:49 am
The “voter suppression” argument is nothing more than a dog whistle.

So flying on planes is a racist plot but it requires an id?

Comment by cdog Friday, Dec 1, 17 @ 11:55 am
Wordslinger - the state was in Crosscheck before Kris Kobach became Kansas SOS.

Comment by titan Friday, Dec 1, 17 @ 12:15 pm
“So flying on planes is a racist plot but it requires an id?”

Do you think somebody is going to fly a voting booth into a building?

– MrJM

Comment by @MisterJayEm Friday, Dec 1, 17 @ 12:33 pm
CDog, google “GOP officials admit voter suppression.” No dog whistling there.

What would be the cost of your new unfunded mandate regulation in search of a real problem? Free state ID cards? Free birth certificates from county clerks to get your ID?

You can’t impose a cost on registering or voting. That’s an unconstitutional poll tax.

So, what’s the cost of free birth certificate copies and free state IDs for everyone, going forward?

Comment by wordslinger Friday, Dec 1, 17 @ 12:45 pm
word, there are many things in life, besides voting, that require an id. Does that make those things racist and oppressive?

On your google suggestion, so a few GOP goofballs think that tightening up voter protocol benefits them.
Fringe players, not biting on that, not condoning those opinions.

Free id’s and birth certificates? I can’t imagine in 2018 there are that many voting age people that would have that problem and so the fiscal impact would be very small. I am sure to receive SNAP or Section 8 you have to show id. Is that make those a form of suppression?

I envision a future where young people are smart and well-equipped, understanding that this game of life has some requirements. To make excuses for outliers doesn’t help anyone. Get the folks that need ids and bc with the program. There are a lot of helpful people willing to do this but for some reason the Democrat party resists this common sense action. hmmmm.

(And, please don’t call me a racist, or insult my pov. My life would that completely and embarrassingly wrong. Let’s stick to good arguments.

Comment by cdog Friday, Dec 1, 17 @ 1:04 pm
*life would prove that

Comment by cdog Friday, Dec 1, 17 @ 1:05 pm
“I can’t imagine *** I am sure *** I envision a future where young people are smart and well-equipped, understanding that this game of life has some requirements.”

The problem is that real citizens vote in the real world, not your idealized vision of the future.

– MrJM

Comment by @MisterJayEm Friday, Dec 1, 17 @ 1:15 pm
– And please don’t call me a racist.–

Where do you see that I did that, Strawman Maker? It’s all in writing, please point out where I did that.

For someone with such a vivid imagination, you’re curiously incurious about the facts of this issue.

Voting is a right. Flying and driving are not. Under the constitution, you can’t impose a poll tax. Your opinion on the cost is irrelevant.

So, again, what will be the costs to provide these documents free for everyone, on demand.

Comment by wordslinger Friday, Dec 1, 17 @ 1:18 pm
I guess “real citizens” just can’t fly on planes, get SNAP benefits, go to school/daycare, etc. /snark with a smile.

I don’t understand enabling this, versus helping these folks get themselves lifted to a new level.

Comment by cdog Friday, Dec 1, 17 @ 1:21 pm
With same day registration and soon to come automatic registration the concern for the use of any multistate data as a tool for voter suppression in Illinois is overhyped. That said the security differences between Crosscheck and ERIC are real, if for no reason other that one was developed many years before the other. The right move here would be to find ways to get state data that isn’t covered by ERIC, and then phase out the use of Crosscheck. A precipitous change is not needed.

Comment by muon Friday, Dec 1, 17 @ 2:14 pm
word, we disagree on this.

How many folks don’t have an id? This seems to be the question. I suspect not too many as they are required in so many other arenas.

(I was drawing a preemptive boundary re racism because it’s tiresome when a response is just a personal insult. It happens a lot with folks here. My apologies for not making my point more clear.)

Comment by cdog Friday, Dec 1, 17 @ 2:55 pm
==How many folks don’t have an id?==

My grandmother didn’t. And she really had no need to.

If you can make a case that voter id is necessary to solve a problem then I’m all in for voter id. Problem is the “case” frequently has to do with voter fraud, which while it would be nice to have zero, statistically speaking isn’t a problem. Voter id is a solution in search of a problem.

Comment by Demoralized Friday, Dec 1, 17 @ 2:58 pm
CDog, what’s your reason for this unfunded mandate, this solution in search of a problem?

Are you a believer innthe fantasy that millions are committing vote fraud, one felony per each fraudulent vote, making signatures that wont match voting judges’ records?

The GOP officials who publicly cop to voter suppression are at least honest.

Comment by wordslinger Friday, Dec 1, 17 @ 3:04 pm
My reason, word, is that the act of voting is too important to not produce an i.d.

What is the reason of your resistance to that?

Comment by cdog Friday, Dec 1, 17 @ 3:52 pm
I could also argue that it is oppressive, and self-serving, to repeatedly tell folks with no ID that they don’t need a $15 ID.

Comment by cdog Friday, Dec 1, 17 @ 3:59 pm
Illinois should hire Chris Chelios to lead an anti-voter suppression campaign. When goons show up at a poll and try to intimidate voters, the goons would be removed from the polling place by Project Fore-check.

Comment by James Knell Friday, Dec 1, 17 @ 4:01 pm
Word, cdog, I don’t get this debate over voter ID in the context of Crosscheck. ID is not the concern we have here in Illinois when talking about whether or not we should stay in Crosscheck. Crosscheck helps the state meet its federal requirements to maintain accurate voter rolls, but it has security issues. It also is connected to a polarizing political figure. None of that touches on voter ID.

Comment by muon Friday, Dec 1, 17 @ 4:16 pm
muon,
From the first article, “However, advocacy groups in Illinois and elsewhere argue Crosscheck isn’t secure and could contribute to voter suppression.”

There are other references in the cited articles.

Comment by cdog Friday, Dec 1, 17 @ 4:20 pm