In 2007, the State of Illinois passed legislation that will require notification to voters when they do not cast a vote for any one or more of the state constitutional officers (Governor, Attorney General, Secretary of State, Comptroller, Treasurer).  I blogged about this in November 2007.

This year, the Illinois Association of County Clerks and Recorders put the elimination of this provision high on their legislative priorities.  I helped craft a one page summary of arguments for removing this provision.  Unfortunately, the legislative leadership in Springfield doesn’t see this provision as a problem.

I am now putting together the information necessary to demonstrate that this provision violates U.S. law, the Illinois Constitution, and Illinois law.  One piece of that information is the law regarding notification of undervotes in each of the other 49 states. This summary demonstrates that the legal requirement to notify voters of an undervoted optical scan ballot exists in only one other state, New York.  Like Illinois, New York has yet to conduct an election using this undervote provision.

Our right to a secret ballot is fundamental to a democratic process that is open and free from coercion.  I’ll continue to post information as it is gathered and we now have a page on the website devoted to this issue.