SPRINGFIELD (Illinois News Network) — The Illinois State Board of Elections is warning residents that they cannot vote online or over the phone as some scams are reportedly looking to convince voters to do.
The Illinois State Board of Elections has received calls from people asking about online voting and reports of people calling offering to vote via a call or text, though the state agency has not been given actual evidence of the scams.
Unless you’re an active duty soldier or overseas, there isn’t a state in America that allows this. A 2016 FBI investigation found that voters on both sides of the aisle have been targeted with voter suppression scams.
ISBE spokesman Matt Dietrich says it’s voter suppression by confusion.
“We think these are efforts to suppress the vote by getting people to think that they have voted online and not go to their polling place and vote,” he said. “There was also a scam aimed at getting people not to vote on Election Day, but to go out the day after and vote.”
The only way to legally vote in Illinois is to vote in person on or before Election Day or to mail a ballot in during the allotted time frame.
Voters who get text messages or see online content purporting to offer to vote online should forward all available information to scamalert@elections.il.gov.
