As courts continue to decide the fate of President Donald Trump’s executive order restricting mail-in ballots, Cook County and Illinois election officials say they’re going full speed on their preparations for early voting and vote-by-mail ballots in the November election.
And as Trump continues a multi-pronged effort to sow doubt on mail ballots, they’re also working to assure voters that the process is secure.
“Voting by mail is not a shortcut around the safeguards that protect our election,” Cook County Clerk Monica Gordon said. “It is a secure, established voting option that is governed by state law and is subject to multiple checks throughout the process.”
Gordon on Tuesday morning hosted U.S. Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, State Sen. Laura Murphy and voting rights leaders from ACLU Illinois, Common Cause and the League of Women Voters for a tour of Cook County’s ballot processing center in Cicero — a day after the U.S. Supreme Court paused a lower court ruling that had blocked parts of Trump’s March executive order.
The court did not weigh in on the legality of the order. Trump’s executive order directed the Department of Homeland Security to create a list of U.S. citizens, with the Postal Service also creating a list of eligible voters from each state. The Postal Service would then deliver mail-in ballots to only those on the lists.
Beyond the Supreme Court decision, an injunction is already in place from a ruling that blocked the U.S. Postal Service from following Trump’s order. The Justice Department, however, is asking for a pause on that ruling. The U.S. Postal Service also released a new rule for mail ballots — requiring a bar code on the envelope — but it comes less than two weeks before some states begin sending ballots to voters. Additional legal challenges are expected — and it’s unclear whether states would be able to change their procedure in time.
Trump has said his executive order is intended to stop people who lack legal status from voting in federal elections, which is already extremely rare. The Illinois State Board of Elections says 10 “noncitizens” have been confirmed to have voted in an Illinois election since 1982. The Cook County Clerk’s office on Tuesday said they have had no records of that happening.
“The Postal Service should deliver ballots, not decide who gets to vote,” Krishnamoorthi said. The Schaumburg Democrat said Trump is trying to give the federal government and the Postal Service powers over elections that Congress hasn’t doled out to the Postal Service.
“A federal district court has already found that Congress did not give the USPS authority to decide which voters receive mail-in ballots,” Krishnamoorthi said. “State and local officials administer our elections. The Postal Service delivers the mail, and that’s it.”
Krishnamoorthi said he’s also renewing calls for Postmaster General David Steiner to resign. He has also pressed for Steiner to testify before Congress, but Republicans have thus far failed to subpoena him.
“I respectfully submit that it is time to remove him because he’s weaponizing the USPS for voter suppression,” Krishnamoorthi said.
Despite the ruling, Gordon said it’s “business as usual,” and she’s preparing for the election by fighting misinformation at her “Trusted Source” website, expanding “smart ballot” drop boxes for mail-in ballots and preparing for an influx of early voting, which begins Oct. 19.
“We always have contingency plans in place for anything that can occur, whether it’s a sudden decision, whether it’s weather, any type of emergency. But I’ll say this is business as usual,” Gordon said. “We’ll continue to do what we’re doing in terms of our mail ballots, making sure that we get them counted, making sure we give everyone in the county accurate information.”
The clerk’s office is deploying 56 of the “smart ballot” drop boxes at early voting locations in suburban Cook County, for voters who don’t want to use the mail to send their ballots back. The machine has a built-in surveillance cameras, tamper-resistant construction and ballot tracking, giving voters a way to see what happens to their ballot after depositing it.
Gordon is recommending voters who choose to mail their ballot to send it in early.
“My message is not don’t vote by mail,” Gordon said. “My message is make a voting plan.”
Illinois State Board of Elections spokesman Matt Dietrich added that nothing has changed with the state’s mail ballot plan, even though legal challenges abound.
“At this point, it doesn’t change anything about the vote by mail process in Illinois,” Dietrich said. “And now we’re basically a month away from vote by mail ballots being sent to voters, so all of this stuff is really coming up. We’re only nine weeks out from the election, so the clock is ticking on all of these things.”