§ 6-79 — Computerization of voter records

(a) The State Board of Elections shall design a registration record card that, except as otherwise provided in this Section, shall be used in duplicate by all election authorities in the State adopting a computer-based voter registration file as provided in this Section. The Board shall prescribe the form and specifications, including but not limited to the weight of paper, color, and print of the cards. The cards shall contain boxes or spaces for the information required under Sections 6-31.1 and 6-35; provided that the cards shall also contain: (i) A space for the person to fill in his or her Illinois driver's license number if the person has a driver's license; (ii) A space for a person without a driver's license to fill in the last four digits of his or her social security number if the person has a social security number. (b) The election authority may develop and implement a system to prepare, use, and maintain a computer-based voter registration file that includes a computer-stored image of the signature of each voter. The computer-based voter registration file may be used for all purposes for which the original registration cards are to be used. In the case of voter registration forms received via an online voter registration system, the original registration cards will include the signature received from the Secretary of State database. The electronic file shall be the master file. (b-2) The election authority may develop and implement a system to maintain registration cards in digital form using digitized signatures, which may be stored in a computer-based voter registration file under subsection (b) of this Section. The making and signing of any form, including an application to register and a certificate authorizing cancellation of a registration or authorizing a transfer of registration may be by a signature written in ink or by a digitized signature. (c) Any system created, used, and maintained under subsection (b) of this Section shall meet the following standards: (1) Access to any computer-based voter registration file shall be limited to those persons authorized by the election authority, and each access to the computer-based voter registration file, other than an access solely for inquiry, shall be recorded. (2) No copy, summary, list, abstract, or index of any computer-based voter registration file that includes any computer-stored image of the signature of any registered voter shall be made available to the public outside of the offices of the election authority. (3) Any copy, summary, list, abstract, or index of any computer-based voter registration file that includes a computer-stored image of the signature of a registered voter shall be produced in such a manner that it cannot be reproduced. (4) Each person desiring to vote shall sign an application for a ballot, and the signature comparison authorized in Articles 17 and 18 of this Code may be made to a copy of the computer-stored image of the signature of the registered voter. (5) Any voter list produced from a computer-based voter registration file that includes computer-stored images of the signatures of registered voters and is used in a polling place during an election shall be preserved by the election authority in secure storage until the end of the second calendar year following the election in which it was used. (d) Before the first election in which the election authority elects to use a voter list produced from the computer-stored images of the signatures of registered voters in a computer-based voter registration file for signature comparison in a polling place, the State Board of Elections shall certify that the system used by the election authority complies with the standards set forth in this Section. The State Board of Elections may request a sample poll list intended to be used in a polling place to test the accuracy of the list and the adequacy of the computer-stored images of the signatures of the registered voters. (e) With respect to a jurisdiction that has copied all of its voter signatures into a computer-based registration file, all references in this Act or any other Act to the use, other than storage, of paper-based voter registration records shall be deemed to refer to their computer-based equivalents. (f) Nothing in this Section prevents an election authority from submitting to the State Board of Elections a duplicate copy of some, as the State Board of Elections shall determine, or all of the data contained in each voter registration record that is part of the electronic master file. The duplicate copy of the registration record shall be maintained by the State Board of Elections under the same terms and limitations applicable to the election authority and shall be of equal legal dignity with the original registration record maintained by the election authority as proof of any fact contained in the voter registration record.

Legislative History

(Source: P.A. 98-115, eff. 7-29-13; 99-522, eff. 6-30-16.)