One of the more controversial days in my eight years as County Clerk was Quad Day 2004 at the University of Illinois. It has been a point of discussion here and in other locations and I’d like to tell the whole story of how events transpired.

I believe that I have an excellent record of promoting student registration, but that record is sometimes obscured by politics. In light of that, I decided in the summer of 2004 to reach out to campus organizations to find out their needs and at the same time let them know the concerns of my office. We had a meeting with representatives of the College Democrats, College Republicans, and Illinois Student Government. I believe that all of us felt the meeting was very positive. At that meeting I provided literally thousands of forms to the College Democrats and let them know that we had plenty more to provide. I do not believe that at any time our willingness to provide forms to the College Democrats in the fall of 2004 was ever questioned.

I have read one comment which suggested that at the meeting I informed the student groups they could use outdated forms for their registration drives. I have no recollection of telling anyone that. It would be in direct contravention to what we did in our office, which was to throw away all the outdated forms the previous year.

The controversy arose when I learned on the morning of Quad Day that the College Democrats were using some of the old registration forms which they had obtained in previous years from another county. I was somewhat distraught over this development, especially since I had given the College Democrats thousands of new forms just days before. I informed them the forms were no longer valid.

Here is the reason why the forms are not valid. Under the National Voter Registration Act of 1993, the mail-in voter registration form did not require a box affirming citizenship. However, this changed with passage of the Help America Vote Act of 2002. The relevant portion of that federal law is here:

(4) CONTENTS OF MAIL-IN REGISTRATION FORM.—
(A) IN GENERAL.—The mail voter registration form developed under section 6 of the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 (42 U.S.C. 1973gg–4) shall include the following:
(i) The question ‘‘Are you a citizen of the United States of America?’’ and boxes for
the applicant to check to indicate whether the applicant is or is not a citizen
of the United States.
(B) INCOMPLETE FORMS.—If an applicant for voter registration fails to answer the question included on the mail voter registration form pursuant to subparagraph (A)(i), the registrar shall notify the applicant of the failure and provide the applicant with an opportunity to complete the form in a timely manner to allow for the completion of the registration form prior to the next election for Federal office (subject to State law).

When I returned to my office and talked to my staff I discovered that we were not enforcing this provision of HAVA in the same way for all registrations. Mail in registrations on old forms were being accepted, but registrations on new forms that lacked the checked box were being rejected. Additionally, the Secretary of State had an affidavit which they attached to their registrations to make them compliant. Those registrations from the Secretary of State which lacked those affidavits were being rejected.

There were many reasons for the confusion, but suffice it to say that I did not do all that I should have done to ensure that all voter registrations were being treated equitably. When I instituted the policy of throwing out old forms, I should have followed up with better communication with my staff and deputy registrars regarding how to deal with old forms. Nevertheless, I stand by my decision to not accept the old NVRA forms and to change our internal office policies to ensure equitable treatment of all voters.

At this point on Quad Day I was well aware that the confusion regarding the old registration forms might lead to voters being disenfranchised. I resolved to do all I could to make sure that did not happen while still making sure that the registrations were compliant with state and federal law. There were 274 registrants who used the old form on Quad Day. I developed an affidavit which we mailed to every registrant who used an old form giving them the opportunity to make an attestation of citizenship. This form was much like the affidavit used by the Secretary of State which was attached to their old forms. The registrant was given four options to complete the form. They could mail it back to our office, fax it back to us, or complete a form on line using a code which was included in the letter we sent them. Despite what some have suggested, no one was ever required to come to our office, although they certainly could have done that if they wanted to.

All but 47 of the 274 registrants completed the affidavit. Others chose to re-register using the voter registration kiosk or a mail in form they could obtain from our website. At least one of the registrants informed us that they were not a citizen. Periodically, I gave a list of these registrants that was marked as to who had completed the affidavit to the College Democrats (at their request) so that they could also follow up with these individuals if they so wished.

This was an unfortunate situation that I believe was resolved with the least amount of trouble for voters. Every voter had sufficient opportunity to fill out the citizenship affidavit. Most took advantage of this opportunity and I don’t believe anyone was disenfranchised because of my decision.

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