Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Elections And Voting topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Clerk Reports New Voter-Registration System, DOJ Inquiry on Vote-by-Mail Maintenance
Summary
Champaign County Clerk Aaron Ammons announced the county went live with a new voter registration system, described expansions of the permanent vote-by-mail list, and reported a Justice Department inquiry about maintenance of voter rolls; he also updated the board on a large recorder digitization and restrictive-covenant mapping project.
Aaron Ammons, Champaign County Clerk, told the board the clerk’s office completed data migration and went live with a new voter-registration system on the day of the hearing but cautioned that some voter-service functions — for example, online vote-by-mail enrollment — were not yet fully activated.
Ammons said the permanent vote-by-mail list counts more than 18,000 voters and that the clerk’s office anticipates two countywide elections in FY26 (primary and general midterm). He said the clerk’s office expects federal reimbursements for election-related costs through the Illinois State Board of Elections grant program and that the office has used automation-fund reimbursements to offset capital costs for the new voter system.
Ammons said the office received an inquiry that reached the U.S. Department of Justice about how voter rolls are maintained, adding that federal staff first asked the State Board of Elections and that county clerks are now being contacted directly as part of the inquiry. "They're now going out to talk to every single county clerk or commission to ask for that process, how we do our maintenance records," Ammons said, and he said the county will coordinate with the Attorney General and the state's attorney for guidance.
On recorder work, Ammons said the office completed a large-scale digitization project of archival records funded from the automation fund and reported ongoing work on a restrictive-covenant project that has reduced flagged subdivisions from 19 to 17; the office is mapping impacted areas with GIS and expects to make that data public.
Board members asked whether loss of federal election funding was expected (Ammons said not yet) and discussed potential cost impacts if vote-by-mail options were limited in the future; Ammons said eliminating vote-by-mail would increase costs for polling locations and staffing but that precise numbers would depend on scale and state/federal guidance. No policy action or appropriation was taken at the hearing.
