Election board demands 'media watchdog' sites remove Illinois voter data

The Illinois State Board of Elections is asking the publisher of numerous Illinois websites to remove thousands of voters' personal data from the 2020 election from its sites.

Since late March, the agency says it has received calls from voters concerned their dates of birth and addresses were published on websites run by Local Government Information Services, a self-described “media watchdog” based in Lake Forest, Illinois, that operates 20 websites and 11 print publications geared toward specific cities and regions of Illinois. Peoria is among the cities with such a website, dubbed the Peoria Standard.

The data appeared in dozens of articles purporting to show which voters in certain precincts had — and had not — voted in the 2020 presidential election.

Data on the Peoria Standard's website, as of Friday night, includes purported voter information for numerous precincts in central Illinois, including Peoria, East Peoria, Pekin, Washington, Morton, Creve Coeur and Tremont.

The site also lists town names such as “Central E Town of Mortonship” and "Central S Town of Mackinawship."

The SBE, in a release issued Friday, said it did not provide the data to  Local Government Information Services.

Under Illinois statute, political committees that are registered with the SBE are allowed to buy the agency's voter data for "bona fide political purposes." The data is not allowed for use in other business purposes.

More: Could this climate bill raise gas prices in Illinois? That depends on who you ask

The State Board of Elections is an independent state agency that has general supervision over how election laws are administered in Illinois. Elections are administered locally by 108 election authorities across the state.

The board of elections says in January 2018 it stopped providing voters' dates of birth in the voter file provided to such political committees.

Through communications with a representative of Local Government Information Services, the agency says it believes that the company combined 2016 and 2020 data sets for the voter stories. A copy of the 2016 voter file was likely used to obtain birth dates and street addresses that were published.

SBE says it believes the company gained access to the 2016 voter file because, at that time, it was affiliated with a political committee — Liberty Principles PAC, which funded its operations.

Liberty Principles PAC ended its financial support of the company in 2016 and closed in 2020, according to the election board.

It its statement Friday, the election board said it has confirmed some of the published voter lists are inaccurate. The agency also has asked the data be removed from the company's sites.

“While LGIS may arguably have had legal access to the voter data when it was being financed bya political committee, any semblance of legality ended when the relationship with the PAC was severedin 2016,” SBE Executive Director Bernadette Matthews said in the statement. “In 2018, we decided to remove dates of birth from the voter file provided to political committees as an added security measure for voters. It isdisappointing when an organization shows such little regard for voters.”

SBE said it has contacted the Illinois Attorney General’s Office about potential legal action.

More: After several dreary days, all eyes are on the solar eclipse weather forecast in Illinois

This article originally appeared on Journal Star: Election board demands sites remove Illinois voter data