A programming error allowed non-U.S. citizens to register to vote in Illinois after they applied for an identification card, the Secretary of State’s office wrote in a letter to the State Board of Elections.
In their letter, the Secretary of State’s office said applicants for non-Real ID cards who selected “no” to a question regarding citizenship from July 2, 2018 through Dec. 13,2019 “were mistakenly included in nightly batches of applications to the State Board of Elections.”
“Those applications were then automatically forwarded to [the BOE] for registration,” the letter read.
The senior legal adviser for the Secretary of State’s office, Nathan Maddox, wrote the error included registration for a total of 574 driver’s licenses and identification cards.
The office noted that while some of the people included in the list weren’t citizens at the time of their application, they may be citizens now. It also says that because the error was not made by the person, they will not face any penalty under Illinois law.
“The SOS has corrected the programming error and is sending communication to these individuals letting them know they should contact [the BOE] to cancel their registration and that they should not vote,” the letter read.
