Walsh Applauds Decision to End Participation in Crosscheck

JOLIET, Ill. – State Rep. Larry Walsh, Jr., D-Elwood, applauded the Illinois State Board of Elections’ decision to end the state’s participation in the widely-criticized Interstate Voter Registration Crosscheck Program.

“It is reassuring to see Illinois withdraw finally from the disastrous Crosscheck Program.,” Walsh said. “We have better options available and thanks to the unanimous decision by the Illinois State Board of Elections, we can now pursue them.”

The Interstate Voter Registration Crosscheck Program, often referred to simply as “Crosscheck”, was created by Kris Kobach, head of President Donald Trump’s Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity. It is an interstate program designed to identify voters illegally registered in multiple states, but has proven to be unreliable, unprotected, and racially-biased. Since 2015, Crosscheck has only identified and prosecuted a small handful of instances of voter fraud. 

Walsh previously filed House Bill 4542 in the 100th General Assembly which would have prohibited Illinois from using Kobach’s disastrous Crosscheck program in favor of the Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC), a non-partisan, more secure, more accurate voter registration data comparison system. Illinois will continue to participate in ERIC while also entering into a data-sharing agreement with Indiana.

“Crosscheck failed to provide a safe and secure way for us to keep track attempted voter fraud,” Walsh said. “At the end of the day any of the supposed benefits of Crosscheck were overshadowed by the problems it caused.”