After many Madison County voters received a letter from Illinois Secretary of State Jesse White requiring them to bring their mail-in ballot with them in order to vote by person, County Clerk Debra Ming-Mendoza reassures voters that the letter does not apply to them if they did not request a mail-in ballot.
“So if the voter has no intention of voting by mail, they simply ignore that letter,” she said.
The letter, which has "caused some confusion" amongst local voters, instructs voters who have turned in applications for mail-in-ballots to bring their ballots with them if they wish to instead vote in person. Those ballots will then be traded for in-person ballots. Ming-Mendoza said this is to prevent someone from being able to vote twice, but still gives them the chance to choose to vote in person if they change their mind about their voting method.
Ming-Mendoza said her office has fielded hundreds of phone calls from voters who are confused, concerned or angry about the instructions.
“It makes people angry and suspicious of the process which doesn’t help in an already volatile situation,” she said.
Ming-Mendoza explained that the letter was sent in accordance with new legislation that requires the Secretary of State’s Office to contact any voter who has not submitted their vote-by-mail application as a follow-up. The vote-by-mail requests were sent to any eligible voter who voted in one of the last three elections.
She added that the letter does not indicate that the voter requested an application to vote-by-mail, and there is no obligation for the voter to request a vote-by-mail application.
“The bottom line is, if the voter did not request a vote by mail ballot, that letter does not pertain to them,” she said.
The letter in its entirety states:
Pursuant to state law (10 ILCS 5/2B-30), the Illinois Secretary of State’s office is required to send this notice to any registered voter who received an application for a vote-by-mail ballot from his or her local election official, but has not yet returned that application. Please note that your election official added you to this distribution list on or before October 2, 2020, so recent applications to vote by mail may not have been received or processed. If you have already returned your vote-by-mail application, received your vote-by-mail ballot, or returned your completed vote-by-mail ballot to your local election official, please disregard this letter.
If you choose not to vote by mail, you may still vote in person, either through early voting or on Election Day. Even if you requested a vote-by-mail ballot, you may choose to vote in person instead - just make sure you bring the vote-by-mail ballot to the polling place and submit it to an election judge prior to voting with a regular ballot. If, by chance, the ballot you received in the mail was torn or mutilated, you can still vote in person, just present the damaged ballot to the election judge prior to voting at the polling place.
Please be advised that you still have time, if you choose, to submit an application for a vote-by-mail ballot. For additional information about vote-by-mail applications or ballots, or for further questions regarding this notice, please contact your local election official. Their office information is provided in the upper right hand corner of this letter.
For those wishing to vote in person, the general election is Nov. 3. Early voting began Oct. 19.