Sangamon Sun

State Rep. Tim Butler (R-Butler) said he'd vote against a bill to expand the use of drop boxes for elections.

If passed, HB 1871 would expand curbside voting and vote-by-mail throughout the state. Similar legislation was spurred by the COVID-19 pandemic for the 2020 general election.

This bill would also permit Illinois to use federal funds to improve the security of collection sites for mail ballots. The 2002 Help America Vote Act distributed federal funds to various states for election administration and Illinois can use the funds it receives for its election security detail.

Butler said that he and the rest of his party will vote against it because he thinks it still needs a lot of fine-tuning before it can be enacted.

Butler also said that this bill could lead to easier election tampering. He recounted a story that involved a county clerk in his area who voted by using a drop box that anyone could carry away.

 He stressed that the lack of security is a major issue. Butler said, “There are no standards on these drop boxes. They worked out fine for the election but our issue is 'no standards.' As Rep. Spain said, ‘we could place them anywhere.’ We could place them to help certain demographics and harm others. There has to be more standards around placement and construction of these.”