McHenry Times

Rep. Allen Skillicorn (R-Crystal Lake) announced at a press conference on Thursday that he has introduced two bills to fight election fraud in Illinois.

Skillicorn also used the press conference to encourage the state’s attorney’s offices to pursue the issue of election fraud.

"Voting is our most fundamental right," Skillicorn said. "We should not allow it to be undermined by election fraud."

Rep. Chris Miller (R-Robinson)

Skillicorn said that people should not allow their votes to be compromised by others who take advantage of the system by voting more than once or in other illegal ways.

"This is all significant," Skillicorn said. "I’ve filed a couple of bills regarding this issue. We know there are people double-voting. I'm putting you on notice, state's attorneys. You need to prosecute."

Skillicorn cited a report by the Illinois State Board of Elections, that showed that in the 2016 general election, more than 1,000 records were identified with potential issues.

"The State Board of Elections and state’s attorney’s must prosecute those who violate our voting laws,” Skillicorn said. "Protecting our most sacred voting rights is long overdue and I have introduced two bills to do so."

The bills Skillicorn introduced are House Bill 2632 and House Bill 2633.

House Bill 2632 enhances penalties for dual voting and prohibits a person from knowingly maintaining more than one registration to vote. House Bill 2633 requires the State Board of Elections to enter into an agreement with the Interstate Voter Registration Crosscheck Program to maintain the integrity of voter registration rolls.

Rep. Chris Miller (R-Robinson) said the state needs to restore integrity to the ballot box.

"You need to have a voter ID to combat this," Miller said. "You have to have an ID to do almost anything in our culture today."

Miller said the pushback from the other side of the aisle is so they can cheat.

"We should also have that you be a citizen to vote," Miller said. "You need to be only able to vote once and you can’t be dead and vote. These are all simple solutions."

Rep. Darren Bailey (R-Louisville) said he agreed with his colleagues.

"I'm proud to be a sponsor of these bills and I'm glad [Skillicorn] brought this to our attention," Bailey said. "Freedom resides on this very act to vote and give our ideas. This undermines freedom and everything the men and women that serve our country fight for."