Lake County Gazette

Judicial Watch, on behalf of the Illinois Conservative Union, settled a federal election integrity lawsuit against the state of Illinois, granting access to the current centralized statewide list of registered voters for the past 15 elections.

The lawsuit was filed on behalf of the Illinois Conservative Union (ICU) and three of its officers, who were refused access to the database despite their lawful request under the National Voter Registration Act of 1993.

“It’s a win,” Vernon Township Republicans said on Facebook, of the settlement.

Judicial Watch reported state officials had previously denied access to the voter registration list, but the settlement now requires them to provide the full voter registration information, including names, addresses, email addresses, telephone numbers, voting history, and more.

“Pursuant to this Agreement, Defendants shall provide to Plaintiffs the current centralized statewide list of registered voters for Illinois (the “Illinois Voter Registration List”) in electronic format, with all fields provided to political committees, including but not limited to fields indicating the registrant’s full name … residential street address … email address … telephone number, county and state voter identification number, age of the registrant, and the registrant’s status (active or inactive) and the most recent date the entry was changed, and voting history for the last fifteen (15) elections,” the settlement approved by U.S. District Judge Sara L. Ellis reads. 

Previously the Illinois State Board of Election only allowed the Illinois Conservative Union members to view the database one record at a time, on a single computer screen, during "normal business hours" at the State Board of Elections office in Springfield, 200 miles away from their residence. With over 8 million voter registrations in Illinois, Judicial Watch contended that these arbitrary restrictions by Illinois authorities were a mockery of federal law, which requires such records to be accessible to the public.

The settlement comes after a federal court ruled in favor of Judicial Watch, allowing their lawsuit to proceed against Illinois officials for denying public access to the state's voter registration database. The court ruled that the plaintiffs have plausible claims that Illinois' actions conflict with the  National Voter Registration Act's purpose of providing voter information to the public and that the case could proceed against Illinois State Board of Elections Executive Director Bernadette Matthews.