Non-U.S. citizens’ votes error, Illinois says

CHICAGO — An error in Illinois’ new automatic voter registration system led to as many as 545 non-U.S. citizens being registered to vote, of whom at least 15 cast ballots, state officials publicly acknowledged this week.

Illinois Secretary of State Jesse White’s office, which oversees driver’s licenses, said the data of 574 people who self-identified as noncitizens was erroneously forwarded to election officials to be registered to vote. Election officials confirmed Tuesday that 545 of them ultimately became registered.

“It was a computer error,” White spokesman Dave Druker said Tuesday. “We moved to correct it and contacted people involved.”

When Illinois residents get standard driver’s licenses, they have to confirm they meet the criteria to vote, certifying they are 18 and a U.S. citizen. Only those who meet the criteria are supposed to be sent to election officials for registration.

The 15 people cast 19 ballots in elections in 2018 and 2019.

Both state and federal law bars noncitizens from voting. Noncitizens have been deported for voting illegally, even when they were unaware they were ineligible.

The disclosure of the error prompted a furious response from Illinois Republicans who deemed it a “serious breach of supposed protections put in place to ensure the integrity of our voter rolls.”

Five House Republicans called for an immediate legislative hearing. Early voting for Illinois’ March 17 primary starts on Feb. 6.

“This is an absurd lack of compliance with state law, surfacing less than three weeks from the opening of early voting for our state’s 2020 general primary election,” they wrote in a letter Monday.

The registrations were based on people who visited secretary of state offices between July 2018 and December 2019. Druker said the office discovered the error last month and contacted election officials immediately.

The cases are believed to involve people who have legal permission to live in the U.S., such as green card holders, Druker said. Illinois allows immigrants living in the country without legal permission to get driver’s licenses through a separate process not linked to voter registration.