With the excitement over yesterday' s immigration rally in Chicago and voter registration being offered at the event, questions were raised on Illinois Review Friday about how the Chicago Board of Election doesn't plan to verify whether those registered Saturday are legal U.S. citizens. According to Illinois law, we were told, all are accepted on the honor system. Chicago GOP's Tom Swiss told us Friday he intends to protest voter registrations submitted from Saturday's rally.
As reported on Illinois Review in 2006, the Illinois Coalition for Immigrants and Refugee Rights were active in registering voters leading up to the Roskam-Duckworth 14th congressional race. We suspect the same will be true in Joliet and some of the more populated areas of the 11th CD, where Democrats are hoping to grab yet another seat from Republican control.
Our gut feeling on that was confirmed when we ran across a column written in the then-brand new Progress Illinois blog by ICIRR's ED Joshua Hoyt, who claimed Bill Foster's victory over Jim Oberweis in March's special election in the 14th CD, based on the huge Latino voter turnout in Aurora. Hoyt wrote:
On March 8, Foster won the race with a convincing 5,000 vote margin, 53 percent to 47 percent. Dozens of Latino and immigrant activists were working to “Get Out The Vote” for Foster on Election Day and it is well worth noting that Foster carried the heavily Hispanic City of Aurora with a 3,200 vote margin.
This victory shows that a reasonable, solution-oriented approach to immigration combined with a hard offense on Republican hypocrisy can successfully neutralize accusations that Democrats are soft on illegal immigration – even in a Republican-leaning district. It is possible to do this without alienating Latino voters or pandering to the climate of hate that has engulfed the debate on immigration.
Read it for yourself HERE.
Is it possible that non-citizens illegally registered to vote could steal an election? What should be done about this possibility -- anything?
