Reply #15: IL- ELECTION '08: State officials alert to voter fraud [View All]

[Melissa G]

ELECTION '08: State officials alert to voter fraud
02/05/2008, 10:21 am

STEPHANIE SIEVERS, [e-mail], 217-524-5797

Illinois may be the state that coined the phrase "vote early and vote often," but local election officials say they aren't expecting problems with voter fraud as people head to the polls today.
"There are so many checks and balances in the system at this time," said Rock Island County Clerk Dick Leibovitz, who said election information is verified and re-verified.

Further, Illinois voters now use some form of electronic voting technology that has made it harder to commit the old forms of voter fraud such as stuffing ballot boxes, says Steve Sturm, an attorney for the Illinois State Board of Elections.

There are optical scan machines in which a voter fills out a paper ballot and it is then fed into a scanner to be "read" and tabulated. Other voters use touch-screen machines and a few parts of the state use a hybrid combination, Sturm said.

It may be harder to get around the technology, but Sturm said it doesn't mean people won't eventually find new ways to try and skirt election laws.

http://mywebtimes.com/ottnews/archives/ottawa/display.php?id=352864