On the Ballot: Checks & Balances
Whether it's a big presidential election year or a so-called “off year” election, McDonough County Clerk Jeremy Benson and his staff dot all the i's and cross all the t's, following guidelines, procedures and processes set forth by the Illinois State Board of Elections.
"There are many checks and balances in place, both in registering voters and with voting," Benson stated.
"When people register to vote, they must produce an ID. While it is not required when voting, a valid state ID is required to register to vote in Illinois, and that has been in place for many, many years."
When a person goes in to vote – either early, by mail or at the polls on Election Day – a signature is required, and is matched to the signature on file. As Benson explained, there are numerous steps that are taken – and procedures in place – to ensure the correct voter is casting that ballot. And there's no way to cast more than one ballot, he added.
"Deceased people voting is not an issue. We do a regular check of the voter database to check to see who has passed away, or even moved out of our county. We also work with other county clerks so if someone dies at the hospital in Peoria, for example, we are notified," Benson pointed out. "It's just one more piece of the puzzle that ensures the integrity of our elections."
What happens if a person shows up at the polls and isn't on the database?
Simple, he said … the election judges start asking questions, like "Where do you live?" The person also must produce a photo ID to verify their place of residence, and their identity.
College students may not realize they've registered elsewhere, so if they show up at the polls, the workers can quickly determine they're not registered in this county, he added.
After an election, what about the validity of the ballots and the tallies? The equipment the county uses is approved by the State of Illinois, which contracts with numerous vendors for certified election equipment Even before Election Day, Benson and his staff run a number of tests to make sure everything is working properly – accepting and tabulating the votes correctly.
"We create a test deck of ballots, and we run this deck through every machine in every precinct, so approximately through 21 machines. We create this test deck so we know what the tally should be and for what candidate," Benson shared.
"We make sure that every result matches and we have never had a mismatch."
The final piece of the puzzle when it comes to debunking election and voting myths is voter fraud, to which Benson said simply, that it hasn't happened in this county.
Another misconception related to the topic of voter fraud is that noncitizens can vote.
"Non-citizens cannot vote. A number of things have to be completed on our part when people register to vote and when they cast their ballot," Benson stressed. "They have to sign an affidavit that they are a citizen of the United States.
"My staff and I work very hard and we know the level of concern people have regarding elections," he concluded. "We take what we do very seriously and we do not take these checks and balances, and our duties, lightly. And we have very good election judges who assist us in every step of the process. We're fortunate to have several experienced poll workers who really do so much to help."
Just the Facts (Brenner Center for Justice) Fact #1: States have myriad checks in place to make sure that only eligible U.S. citizens can vote. Under federal and state law, only U.S. citizens can vote in state and federal elections.
To register to vote, a person must swear to their U.S. citizenship under penalty of criminal prosecution.
Election processes are full of checks to identify ineligible voter registrants. Under federal law, states are required to conduct regular list maintenance to remove ineligible voters from the rolls. Many states also participate in the Electronic Registration Information Center, which allows members to compare their voter rolls across state lines and ensure that lists are accurate and up-to-date. All voters’ names and addresses are recorded, and ineligible voters face severe penalties, including jail time or deportation. A noncitizen working toward naturalization can be denied citizenship for being registered to vote.
Fact #2: The Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act guarantees that U.S. troops and other citizens serving our country abroad can exercise their right to vote.
In 1986, President Ronald Reagan signed the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act (UOCAVA), giving military members and other U.S. citizens living abroad the right to register to vote and cast an absentee ballot in federal elections.
Without that law, troops serving our country, missionaries, aid workers, and other citizens living abroad would be disenfranchised. A rigorous system of checks ensures that only eligible U.S. citizens can vote from abroad. Among other steps, they must provide a residential address in the United States and their signature to register. Americans living overseas cannot choose any state to vote in; they must vote in the last state they lived in. We should do everything we can to guarantee that they can vote, not bash the system that allows them to do so.
Fact #3: Voting by mail and using drop boxes are safe and trustworthy ways to vote thanks to multiple layers of security.
Mail voting is a deep-rooted practice in the United States, and has been successfully used in U.S. elections for more than 150 years. In that time, states have developed numerous layers of security to protect against malfeasance. Practices vary by state, but every state has a well-tested and multilayered system of checks to ensure the security of mail voting.
Voter fraud related to ballots sent by mail or placed in drop boxes is extremely rare.
Fact #4: Election officials audit voting machines at every step of the process to make sure that votes are recorded correctly.
Ensuring the security of election technology is critical; however, rumors about dysfunctional voting machines ignore the numerous security measures in place to prevent, catch, and recover from any technical errors. States deploy a series of safeguards and checks to ensure the accuracy of final vote counts.
While each state’s procedures are different, these are among the most common: voting machines are certified to federal and state security standards before being deployed, tested before voters cast their ballots to make sure they are working properly, and audited again after elections to confirm that they correctly counted ballots and produced an accurate total.
Fact #5: States have multiple systems in place to update voter rolls and continually improve their accuracy. Voter rolls have received increased attention in recent years as it has been falsely claimed that inaccurate rolls have led to widespread fraud.
Fact #6: State certification laws require officials to sign off on results that election workers have carefully counted and double- checked through strict, predetermined procedures. Each state has preset procedures and timelines for how election officials count ballots and finalize results after the polls close. After a series of checks that confirm the accuracy of the results, officials sign off on them in a final step called certification.
Certification is a legally mandated, nondiscretionary duty. The certification process is typically narrow in scope; state laws lay out legal channels to pursue in the event that a candidate alleges electoral fraud. Officials typically review the unofficial results and certify results at meetings that are open to the public, and many states assign these responsibilities to joint teams of Republicans and Democrats.
Fact #7: Results are never final on Election Day. Election workers need time to ensure that all legitimate votes are counted.
New batches of ballots are added to vote totals in the hours and days (and sometimes weeks) following an election, and sometimes those ballots come from groups that vote similarly, such as those voting by mail or those from a certain area. As those batches of ballots are counted, the candidate in the lead often changes, especially in close races.
Claims that ballots counted after polls close are not legitimate. Results are not available on election night for various reasons, including the fact that not all votes are received by the time polls close. The Constitution allows states to establish their own rules and timelines for when and how votes can be counted. For instance, in some states, mail ballots must be received by Election Day to be counted, while in others, ballots can be counted as long as they are postmarked by Election Day.
Secure Elections: Combatting Misinformation (American Bar Association) The evidence that our elections are secure is overwhelming. Voter fraud is extremely rare. Of the more than 25 million votes cast in six swing states in the 2020 election, an analysis by the Associated Press found fewer than 475 potential voter fraud cases, and even those cases were unconfirmed.
This is no coincidence. It is the result of an election process built with multiple layers of protection. Ballot scanners and other voting systems undergo rigorous pre-election logic and accuracy testing, as well as routine audit testing. After the election, a thorough canvassing process provides an additional check on vote tabulation accuracy. In the 2024 general election, around 98 percent of all votes cast were on paper or had a voter-verifiable paper trail, and as projected by the Bipartisan Policy Center, that number is expected to increase in 2026.
Disinformation is also used as a tool for voter suppression. As documented by the National Democratic Institute, myths of voter fraud and other election disinformation can erode trust in democratic institutions and reduce voter turnout. Non-citizen voting – another fallacy - in federal elections is extremely rare. Yet this fiction has been weaponized to justify restrictive voting measures, including attempts to pass the SAVE Act. Supporters of the legislation claim it will ensure only U.S. citizens can vote in federal elections, but that is already the law. Voter fraud narratives also serve as catalysts for political violence.
