Vote twice? Not here, Ill. election officials say

Safeguards in place to prevent that from happening

Illinois election officials have one response to those mulling President Donald Trump’s recommendation to vote twice in the November election: Don’t bother.

The latest controversy surrounding the president’s opposition to widespread mail-in voting began Wednesday, when Trump told reporters that people in North Carolina should cast an absentee ballot and then vote in person.

“Let them send it in and let them go vote, and if their system’s as good as they say it is, then obviously they won’t be able to vote,” Trump said. “If it isn’t tabulated, they’ll be able to vote.”

He took to Twitter the next morning and said that in order to ensure their votes are counted, people should mail in their ballot and then go to the polls to see if they can vote again. That resulted in the social media company flagging his posts for violating its rules on “civic and election integrity.”

Voting twice is illegal. And, state and local election officials say those following the president’s advice would run up against numerous safeguards.

If a voter shows up to the polls after applying for a vote-by-mail application, election judges would be able to see that status in their electronic poll books, Cook County clerk’s office election attorney James Nally said. The voter can then turn that ballot in to be marked void and vote in person or, if they don’t have it, they can cast a provisional ballot to be held until officials determine the mail ballot was not counted.

That applies to voters who applied to vote by mail but changed their minds; they can bring their mail-in ballot to the polls to be voided or cast a provisional ballot, Nally said.

The electronic poll books ensure election judges can flag voters who already have mail-in ballots “on the spot,” Nally said.

“We have a process that would prevent anybody from voting twice,” Nally said. “It’s not going to happen, that’s the first thing. It just isn’t, because the system has these safeguards built into it.”

Nally said he doesn’t suspect Trump’s comments will unduly hold up the polls because voter fraud is rare and “most people are not going to attempt to do anything like that.” Still, he said the president promoting such actions is concerning.

“I certainly was very surprised to hear that,” Nally said. “We have a very efficient system of democracy in our country, and anybody who calls that into question or would suggest that somebody do something that would be contrary to the law is very questionable in my opinion.”

Chicago election board Chairwoman Marisel Hernandez reiterated the notion that voting by mail is a proven system and said an influx of people heeding Trump’s advice, though unlikely, “would not contribute to a smooth election.”

“The system has been tested with very close election contests that have been decided by a handful of votes — both mailed and in-person — and the results have stood up to postelection reviews and recounts,” Hernandez wrote in a statement.

In Illinois, knowingly voting more than once or attempting to do so is a Class 3 felony. As for encouraging people to do that, attorneys at the state election board say there are routes to prosecute such cases, although they are not directly addressed by election law, said Matt Dietrich from the Illinois State Board of Elections.

“It is not lawful to instruct others to commit a felony,” Dietrich said.

Some experts say the focus should not be on potential voter fraud — a frequent boogeyman floated by Trump during his attacks on voting by mail — but on reaching voters who are confused by the bureaucratic process. Ami Gandhi, senior counsel for the Chicago Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights, said in her experience, voters are looking to do the right thing, and election judges are there to help should there be hiccups. “We urge voters to not let the administration’s confusing misinformation stop anyone from exercising their fundamental right to vote,” Gandhi said. “We urge voters to stick with it and to please not be scared away by misinformation scare tactics or confusion coming from government leaders. It’s very natural and common for troubleshooting to happen at the polls and not any indication of an election security problem.”

Illinois likely will break a record for voting by mail during the Nov. 3 general election, with more than 1.3 million voters requesting mail-in ballots as of Friday, according to state election officials. Chicago made up 339,347 of those applications, after already topping the number for the March 17 primary and November 1944 election, when U.S. troops were overseas during World War II. As of Friday, suburban Cook County received 286,038 vote-by-mail ballots, Nally said.

The surge of mail-in ballots comes as a new state law requires Illinois’ 108 local election authorities to send vote-by-mail applications to previous voters. Chicago-area voters concerned about U.S. Postal Service delivery can place their mail-in ballots in special drop-off boxes.