Daily news feeds are full of announcements and updates about candidates for next year's election. But already worry is beginning to set in about the 2016 campaign season at Illinois' elections board. It's one of the agencies that has no state funding as lawmakers are at an impasse.
Elections director Steve Sandvoss says he's concerned the agency will not be able to comply with a new voter registration law. It requires Illinois to join the federal Electronic Registration Information Center, which is supposed to help ensure voter rolls stay clean. Sandvoss says without a budget, Illinois can't pay the required $25,000 membership fee. "And then yearly dues of around $75,000 to $80,000. It requires a mass mailing to all the persons in Illinois who are currently not registered but are of voting age population; that would be roughly $800,000. But again we don't have the money for that because we don't have a budget."
Sandvoss says otherwise, the elections board is continuing business as usual for now as court orders mean employees are getting paid.
