PREVENTING VOTE FRAUD*

Your Illinois State Board of Elections advises that you, the voter, are the chief safe guard against vote fraud. And you can play a major role in helping to guarantee fair and honest elections.

VOTE FRAUD

Is a clear intent or action aimed at depriving a voter of his right to vote or falsifying actual votes cast. Voters can play a major role in helping to guarantee clean elections by being on the alert for unusual activities at or near polling places and reporting irregularities to election authorities.

Some of the more common methods of fraudulent activity include:

• Vote buying, offering money or gifts to a voter to vote for a specific candidate
• Chain balloting, taking a previously marked ballot from the polls and passing it to a voter entering the polls
• Ghost voting, voting under the name of a deceased person, a fictitious name, or a nonexistent address
• Altering the figures on the tally sheet during the counting of ballots

IF A VOTER SPOTS SOMETHING THAT SHOULD NOT BE HAPPENING AT THE POLLS, THEY SHOULD REPORT IT IMMEDIATELY TO THE ELECTION JUDGES AND/OR APPROPRIATE AUTHORITIES.

The following are telltale signs that you should be suspicious of:

• Money changing hands in or near the polls
• Someone passing a folded piece of paper or card to a voter who hides it on his person
• A person claiming to be someone else in order to vote. Also, someone giving an address of a place that you know is an empty lot. Or, if you know a person doesn't live at the address which he claims
• More than one person in a voting booth, except under these circumstances:
  • If a disabled person signed an affidavit requesting assistance, he may have a friend or two judges of election (one from each party) assist him in the voting booth.
  • If a person is illiterate and requests assistance and signs an affidavit he may have a friend or two judges (one from each party) assist him.
• Electioneering within 100 feet of the entrance of a polling place
• Intoxicated voters being given assistance in the voting booth
• Election Judges from both major parties are not represented in the polling place where major political parties are listed on the ballot
• The judges of election are not in control of the poling place.

ANY OF THE ABOVE TELLTALE SIGNS SHOULD BE REPORTED IMMEDIATELY TO THE ELECTION JUDGES AND/OR THE APPROPRIATE AUTHORITIES.

Many voting irregularities are often misconstrued as vote fraud. These occur as a result of misunderstanding election laws or through malfunction of voting devices.

REMEMBER........

The judges of election are the sole authority in the polling place on election day -

No person, except a judge, may handle or touch election supplies and materials

A police officer may be in the polling place to preserve order and carry out lawful directions given by the judges

Pollwatchers are official observers only. They may observe the conduct of the election before, during, and after the polls close. All pollwatchers must present valid credentials upon entering the polling place.

Electioneering, or any type of campaigning, must not take place in or within 100 feet of the entrance to the polling place during voting hours.

*Source - Illinois State Board of Election