Local election authorities make improvements, discuss election security ahead of Illinois primary
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (WCIA) – Voters are heading to the polls and casting their ballots for who they want to be their party’s nominee in a number of races.
Some county clerks are making changes to improve election security. In Sangamon County, voters will be putting their ballots through the county’s new tabulation machines.
“We substantially increased our posture in terms of protecting against cybersecurity and bad actors,” Don Gray, the county’s clerk said.
Gray said part of increasing election security includes making sure voters feel confident and comfortable with the process.
“It’s education; it’s actually conducting the elections well,” Gray said. “It’s being transparent and accountable to every little aspect that we provide in services from the vote by mail process, to the validation of voters and vote by mail, and early voting on Election Day. It’s being transparent through audits and how we operate that our results are reflective of how ballots were cast.”
As part of the conversation around election security, a big focus is cybersecurity. The Illinois State Board of Elections (ISBE) has also worked to improve that through their Cyber Navigator program.
The program was created in 2018 after Russian hackers downloaded the information of about 76,000 Illinois voters in 2016.
“That was a program that was designed to make sure that all 108 local election authorities in Illinois have access to the same resources and training that we have at the state level, and that a lot of the larger jurisdictions have historically had at their disposal,” Matt Dietrich, the publication information officer at ISBE, said.
While cybersecurity is top of mind for election authorities, they say the biggest concern voters should be aware of is false information about the election process spreading on social media.
“If you see something that you think isn’t right, don’t share it, don’t comment on it — because once you do that, you’re going to see more of that in your feed,” Dietrich said. “That’s just the way social media works.”
ISBE works with the Illinois State Police’s Statewide Terrorism and Intelligence Center to look out for election misinformation and disinformation.
The Illinois primary is March 19.
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