(The C enter Square) – A bill filed by state Rep. Charles Meier aims to combat voter fraud by allowing a county clerk the ability to cancel a voter registration if they do not think the person is a qualified voter.
House Bill 4310 was filed in December by state Rep. Charles Meier, R-Highland. The bill seeks to address issues with the state’s mail-in vote system and would give county clerks the ability to turn down a voter registration if the clerk believes the registration is fake or if the voter has passed away or moved.
“Illinois is notorious for having a lot of dead people vote,” Meier said. “It seems kind of amazing there is always accusations of this … and what simpler way to clean up the process than by using your county clerks.”
Voter fraud became a concern for some during the 2020 elections. Pandemic-related policies that state legislatures across the country brought allowed many citizens to vote by mail.
DuPage County is currently investigating nine cases of voter fraud alleged in their county. DuPage County Clerk Jean Kaczmarek said in a statement that the system needs to be fair.
“While voter fraud is not a widespread problem anywhere, voters need to be reassured that every individual application is held up to scrutiny to ensure that the election is fairly conducted,” Kaczmarek said.
Meier said his bill would give county clerks the ability to withhold any applications they get back as invalid.
“The ballots will be mailed out to where they are addressed to and if you don’t live there anymore you should not be getting those ballots mailed back to you with votes,” Meier said. “A county clerk is an elected position and they are supposed to uphold the law.”
The bill has been assigned to the Rules Committee but has not yet been moved.
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