Prairie State Wire

In a case brought by the Public Interest Legal Foundation (PILF), a federal judge in Illinois ruled March 8 that the state is required to allow public inspection of its voter rolls.

In the ruling, U.S District Judge Sue Myerscough of the U.S. District Court for the Central District of Illinois agreed with PILF’s argument that the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA) requires states to make their rolls available for public inspection and, in the Illinois case, for photocopying at a reasonable cost.

The PLIF is a legal group based in Indianapolis.

“The foundation has shown that, on the undisputed material facts, defendants acted in violation of the public disclosure provision of the NVRA when defendants refused to make available for viewing and photocopying the full statewide voter registration list,” Myerscough wrote in her opinion. "The foundation has also shown that Section 5/1A-25 [state law] conflicts with, and is preempted by, the public disclosure provision insofar as Section 5/1A-25 prohibits the photocopying and duplication of the same list.”

The ruling is similar to another recent decision by a federal judge in Maine that the NVRA not only preempts state policy (the Illinois Board of Elections in this case) not permitting public inspection of its voter rolls but also an act by the state’s legislature that prevents examination.

“Election officials must allow citizens to see what they are doing,” PILF President J. Christian Adams said in a statement. “Federal law allows everyone to see what is going on in election offices. PILF has found dead and duplicate registrants and voters registered in multiple states. Voter rolls are public, and the court said so. This is the second ruling this week that the foundation has won to gain access to voter rolls. Accurate voter rolls are essential to free and fair elections.”

The judge also ruled that the Illinois Board of Elections is required to pay PILF’s attorney’s fees and costs.

Research by PILF has shown that the voter rolls in many states are ill-managed with duplicate registrations and deceased voters still on the rolls. In September 2020, the foundation published the results of an inspection of the roll in 42 states, titled Safeguarding America’s Votes and Elections (SAFE).

Among other irregularities, it found 349,773 deceased voter registrants, and that in the 2018 general election, 37,889 duplicate registrants “apparently casting two votes from the same address.”

President Joe Biden carried Illinois by 1.25 million votes over former President Donald Trump.