Sen. Sally Turner refiles bill to make election process more transparent, uniform

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (WAND) — An Illinois Senate Republican has reintroduced a bill to help make the election process more transparent and uniform for county clerks. Sen. Sally Turner (R-Lincoln) told WAND News her suggested changes come from 24 years of personal experience as the Logan County clerk and recorder.

The election process is a very important issue to Turner, who has filed the same proposal to standardize election procedures since she became a state senator in 2021. She believes the State Board of Elections should update required election judge training to ensure every judge knows about voter verification, campaign free zones, electioneering, vote-by-mail processing, provisional voting, and ballot processing.

"You know how it is with 102 counties," Turner said Tuesday. "Everybody looks at things a little bit differently. That's just something I brought up. They all need to be treating all of the processes exactly the same."

Turner's plan could also require local election leaders to publish vote-by-mail processing rules on their websites 120 days before elections. She said clerks could simply post the state's legal requirements for vote-by-mail to help the public understand every step of the process.

"When your ballot comes in, they come in an envelope. There is an affidavit in the envelope, and there's a signature on the envelope," Turner said. "Those signatures are compared to make sure that this is indeed the person who is on the file who sent in the ballot and the affidavit."

Turner's bill also calls on election authorities to post updates on their website if there are any reporting delays from election judges five hours after the polls close.

"The hold up might be something simple and a simple explanation for it," Turner said. "The trains in Eastern Illinois, they sometimes hold up people getting back."

The State Board of Elections would be required to audit vote-by-mail ballots received after elections as well. Turner's plan states the audit would cover 5% of election authorities in Illinois to review their handling and processing procedures for vote-by-mail applications, certification envelopes and returned envelopes.

Turner hopes she can gain bipartisan support for the plan this year, although it has never been heard in a committee. The Republican said she is willing to include the language in a Democratic lawmaker's election bill if it could finally become law.