Andrade Urges State Board of Elections To Withdraw From Crosscheck

CHICAGO – Yesterday, state Rep. Jaime Andrade, D-Chicago, urged the State Board of Elections to withdraw from the “Crosscheck” voting system due to his concerns of the systems lack of proper data security measures and recent trends of voter suppression.

“As the Chair of the House Committee on Cybersecurity, Data Analytics, & IT, hearing the fatal flaws in the data security practices being implemented is Crosscheck was gravely concerning,” Andrade said. “This is the same kind of gross negligence that led to the massive data hack at Equifax, putting millions of consumers at risk of identity theft.”

Recent findings from Indivisible Chicago have uncovered serious security flaws with the Crosscheck program.  Crosscheck administrators have uploaded Illinois voters’ personal information to an unencrypted server,  used easily guessed passwords and sent them over unsecure emails, and even released un-redacted personal voter information to the public.

Additionally, Kansas Secretary of State, Kris Kobach, a right-wing ideologue who has made a career out of suppressing voter turnout, is the head administrator of the Crosscheck program. Kobach’s efforts to suppress voter turnout, especially in minority communities, have not gone unnoticed. He has been tapped as the vice-chairman of the new Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity. Studies have shown that Crosscheck results are 99.5% false positives, running the risk of suppressing voter turnout by incorrectly kicking legitimate voters off the rolls

“I’m very concerned that Crosscheck is being administered by one of Donald Trump’s hand-picked members to suppress voter turnout nationwide,” Andrade said. “While Crosscheck may have been started with good intentions, it’s clear that the problems of the program vastly outweigh any perceived benefits. I strongly urge the State Board of Elections to leave the program immediately.”