The Illinois State Board of Elections (SBE) is urging action after discovering personal data belonging to voters on various Illinois websites.
SBE has called on the publisher of these sites, Local Government Information Services, to promptly remove the information, which is suspected to violate the Illinois Election Code.
According to the SBE, since late March, SBE they been inundated with complaints from voters alarmed to find their dates of birth and complete street addresses published on websites operated by Local Government Information Services. This media entity, based in Lake Forest, runs 20 websites and 11 print publications targeting specific Illinois cities and regions, branding itself as a "media watchdog."
In the region, Local Government Information Services publishes The DeKalb Times, NW Illinois News and The Rockford Sun.
The contentious data surfaced in numerous articles purportedly detailing voter turnout in specific precincts during the 2020 presidential election. Although the State Board of Elections is mentioned in these articles, it clarifies that it did not supply any data to Local Government Information Services for these publications.
Under Illinois law, political committees registered with SBE have access to voter data files for legitimate political activities only, with strict prohibitions on commercial use. Since January 2018, SBE has refrained from including voters' dates of birth in the data provided to political committees to bolster voter privacy.
SBE alleges that Local Government Information Services accessed voter data from the 2016 election cycle, potentially through its past affiliation with Liberty Principles PAC, a political committee that ceased its support in 2016 and dissolved in 2020. Despite SBE's demands, Local Government Information Services has not complied with requests to remove the exposed data from its platforms.
Bernadette Matthews, Executive Director of SBE, expressed disappointment, stating, "While LGIS may have had legal access to the voter data in the past, any semblance of legality ended when the relationship with the PAC was severed in 2016." SBE is exploring potential legal action with the Illinois Attorney General's Office.
The Illinois State Board of Elections, an independent state agency, oversees the administration of election laws in Illinois, collaborating with 108 local election authorities across the state.