{"id":1981499,"date":"2023-07-24T16:12:01","date_gmt":"2023-07-24T20:12:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/court-illinois-must-forfeit-voter-roll-data-to-conservative-group\/"},"modified":"2023-07-24T16:14:21","modified_gmt":"2023-07-24T20:14:21","slug":"court-illinois-must-forfeit-voter-roll-data-to-conservative-group","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/court-illinois-must-forfeit-voter-roll-data-to-conservative-group\/","title":{"rendered":"Illinois Court Orders Voter Roll Data Forfeiture to Conservative Group"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">20<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fcourt-illinois-must-forfeit-voter-roll-data-to-conservative-group%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1981499&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<figure>\n        <!-- Image goes here --><br \/>\n      <\/figure>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<blockquote>\n<h2>Illinois\u200c District Court Rules\u2063 in Favor of Conservative Groups&#8217; Access to Voter Registration List<\/h2>\n<p>An Illinois district court judge ruled last week\u2064 that state officials must give a coalition \u2063of conservative groups access to\u2063 Illinois\u2019 list\u200c of registered voters dating back to the state\u2019s past 15\u200d elections.<\/p>\n<p>In her <a href=\"https:\/\/www.judicialwatch.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/Illinois-Conservative-Union-et-al.-v-Illinois-et-al.-Settlement-05542.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">July 18 decision<\/a>, Judge Sara Ellis ruled that as\u2062 part of \u2062an agreement between the state and\u2064 the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/IllinoisConservativeUnion\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Illinois Conservative Union (ICU)<\/a> \u2014 \u200ba self-described \u201ccoalition of\u200c [Illinois-based] conservative groups and grassroots \u2062activists\u201d\u200c \u2014 Illinois must provide\u2064 plaintiffs with \u201cthe current centralized \u200dstatewide list of\u200c registered voters for Illinois (the \u2062\u201cIllinois Voter Registration List\u201d) in electronic format.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>According to the ruling, this will give the ICU access\u200d to information such as a \u2064registrant\u2019s \u2063\u201cfull name,\u201d \u201cresidential street address number and\u200c name,\u201d \u201cstate voter identification number,\u201d and \u201cstatus (active \u2062or inactive),\u201d among other data. Registrants protected by\u2064 federal or\u200d state statutes mandating confidentiality \u2014 \u2063such as those protecting \u2064stalking victims \u2014 would have their information excluded or redacted, \u200bhowever.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAny violation\u2062 of this Agreement and the\u2062 Confidentiality Order, as set forth herein, shall be deemed a\u2063 material breach of \u200bthe Agreement,\u201d the\u200c ruling reads.<\/p>\n<p>Initially filed by Judicial Watch \u2014 a \u2062conservative watchdog \u2062group \u2014 in September\u200c 2020, the lawsuit against Illinois <a href=\"https:\/\/www.judicialwatch.org\/illinois-settles-voter-roll-lawsuit\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">alleged<\/a> \u200d that the Democrat-led state \u2064\u201crefused to\u2063 allow the \u2026 Illinois Conservative Union and three lawfully registered Illinois voters to \u2064obtain a \u200dcopy of\u200c the state\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/republicans-democrats-h-r-1-is-a-power-grab-would-undermine-states-election-rules\/\" title=\"Republicans: Democrats\u2019 H.R. 1 Is a Power Grab, Would Undermine States\u2019 Election Rules\">voter registration list<\/a>.\u201d While the \u200b <a href=\"https:\/\/www.justice.gov\/crt\/national-voter-registration-act-1993-nvra\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">National Voter Registration Act<\/a> mandates that states\u200b make \u201call records\u201d\u2062 related \u200cto programs used \u2064to ensure\u200c accurate voter rolls\u2064 be made \u201cavailable for public \u200dinspection,\u201d Illinois purportedly stonewalled the \u2064ICU and \u200bthree \u2063voters\u2019 efforts to access such information by making them view the database \u201cone \u200brecord at a time, on a single \u2064computer screen, during \u200b\u2018normal business hours.&#8217;\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Plaintiffs were also allegedly \u2064required to travel to Springfield in\u2063 order to view the\u200c records, which, according to Judicial Watch, is 200 miles from where\u200d they live.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cClean voter rolls mean \u2063cleaner elections. This is a victory for all legal voters in Illinois,\u201d Judicial Watch\u200c President\u200d Tom Fitton said of the ruling\u200b in a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.judicialwatch.org\/illinois-settles-voter-roll-lawsuit\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">statement<\/a>. \u201cVoters \u200cwill now have the\u2063 transparency that federal\u200d law requires in order \u2063to ensure elections in \u2062Illinois are more honest and\u200b cleaner.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>A <a href=\"https:\/\/www.judicialwatch.org\/illinois-settles-voter-roll-lawsuit\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Judicial Watch \u2064press \u2063release<\/a> announcing last week\u2019s\u2063 court \u200druling \u200bclaims \u200dthe\u2063 watchdog group will \u200cbe producing \u2063a study \u201cbased on recent census\u200c data and information Illinois reported to \u2063the federal \u2062Election Assistance Commission\u201d that purportedly shows how \u201c14% of Illinois\u2019 counties have more registered voters than citizens over \u200b18\u201d and the state \u201chas close\u200d to 800,000\u200b inactive registrants.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s worth mentioning that election integrity \u2064groups such as \u200bthe Voter Reference Foundation have consistently <a href=\"https:\/\/app.voterreferencefoundation.com\/scorecard\/index\/1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">ranked<\/a> \u2062Illinois as one of the worst states when it comes\u200b to transparency of election data and overall\u200d election operations. The \u200cHeritage \u2063Foundation has also given Illinois <a href=\"https:\/\/www.heritage.org\/electionscorecard\/index.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">similarly poor marks<\/a> for its lack of election transparency.<\/p>\n<hr>\n<p>Shawn Fleetwood is \u200ca staff writer for The Federalist and a graduate of the University\u200b of Mary Washington. He previously served as a state content writer for Convention of States Action and his work has been featured in numerous\u200b outlets, including \u2062RealClearPolitics, RealClearHealth, and Conservative Review. Follow him on Twitter @ShawnFleetwood<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<div data-image data-amount=\"5\">\n<h2>Popular<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/thefederalist.com\/#\"><\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/thefederalist.com\/#\"><\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/thefederalist.com\/#\"><\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/thefederalist.com\/#\"><\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/thefederalist.com\/#\"><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>An Illinois judge ordered state officials to provide a coalition of conservative groups with access to Illinois&#8217; voter list from the past 15 elections. Judge Sara Ellis ruled on July 18 that this was part of an agreement between the state and the Illinois Conservative.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":539,"featured_media":1981500,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[546],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1981499","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-federalist"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1981499","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/539"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1981499"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1981499\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1981500"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1981499"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1981499"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1981499"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}