Harper Backs Effort to Withdraw Illinois from Trump’s Phony Voter Fraud Commission

CHICAGO – State Rep. Sonya Harper, D-Chicago, is demanding Illinois withdraw from Donald Trump’s sham election commission which puts residents’ personal information in jeopardy and could lead to millions of legal voters being denied the right to vote in order to justify Trump’s brazen lies about voter fraud.

“Donald Trump’s phony election commission needlessly puts our personal information at risk and could strip the right to vote from millions of Americans – particularly people of color,” Harper said. “This dangerous commission exists only to perpetuate Trump’s fantasy about why he lost the popular vote by more than 3 million votes. Illinois has no business putting our right to vote at risk simply to enable Trump’s lies.”

Trump’s Crosscheck program was formed to create evidence that supports his false claims that he would have won the popular vote if not for rampant voter fraud, even though no evidence for such fraud exists. Studies have shown that Crosscheck results are 99.5 percent false positives, meaning legal voters would be improperly removed from the rolls and denied the right to vote. Additionally, reports have indicated that Trump’s Crosscheck system is not prepared to protect voters’ personal information from possible hacking, like the hacks executed by Russian operatives to aid Trump’s campaign.

Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner’s appointees to the Illinois State Board of Elections all voted to keep Illinois in Trump’s system. Harper is calling on Rauner and his allies to stand up to Trump and withdraw from Crosscheck before Illinois voters are disenfranchised. If Republicans continue to blindly follow Trump, Harper plans to support legislation that will prohibit the governor and his allies from putting Illinois voters at risk by participating in Trump’s Crosscheck.

“Donald Trump has never respected the rights of people of color, and he’s made it clear he wants even more barriers keeping black people from the ballot box. Knowing what we know about Trump, we need to be very vigilant of any effort that could make it harder to vote,” Harper said. “If Bruce Rauner won’t stand up to Trump and won’t stand up for Illinois voters, I will.”