Sangamon Sun

During the Illinois Senate hearing on a bill that would allow undocumented immigrants to vote in school board elections, Tom Bride, of the Illinois Association of County Clerks and Recorders, expressed some of his organization's concerns.

Bride explained that it would be difficult to facilitate if township and city elections are being held the same day. "The first thing that comes up is this bill would require us to create a secondary database to house the information for non-citizen voters in Illinois," Bride said. 

Bride also expressed concerns about added responsibility for the Illinois School Board.

"The elections are a complicated exercise and you’re bringing the Illinois School Board into the registration on the affidavit."

Commenting further about the issue of the electoral database, he directed a question to the committee chair.

"I would ask the chairman and the sponsor that – our concerns over the process is – that we'd have to have a separate database,” Bride said as he went on to explain. "We have to have a specific ballot for introducing the local school boards in the election process through that voter affidavit and verification process."

Senate Bill 1565 would amend the School Code that would oblige the Illinois Board of Education to produce a voter registration affidavit “that shall be the exclusive means by which a noncitizen of the United States may register to vote in school board elections.”

It would additionally provide “that the elections conducted under the provisions are considered non-State elections and are not subject to the citizenship requirement in the Illinois Constitution.”