PEKIN, Ill. – Tazewell’s County Clerk says the state of Illinois is ahead of the game on election security.
County Clerk John Ackerman spoke on WMBD’s “The Greg and Dan Show” Friday morning after Trump’s Thursday night speech regarding election security.
During his speech, Trump declassified documents that would appear China committed data theft and attempted to influence the results of the 2020 election through a campaign.
Ackerman says the state of Illinois has already ramped up security measures, because of an incident involving the Russians in 2016.
“They hacked Kankakee County’s election authority. They got into their database, and because it was more open than it is today, they were able to worm their way all the way to the State Board of Elections and steal voting roll information. So directly what the President was talking about,” Ackerman said.
Ackerman says one measure taken since the hack includes requiring paper ballots, even for electronic voting machines, something Trump called for in his speech. And while Trump called for a more centralized system of voting, Ackerman says having the opposite makes it more unlikely for an outside force to hack voting machines and rolls.
Another thing Ackerman agreed with the President on is a concerning level of foreign influencing and campaigning.
“They take our data files and they campaign to our voters,” Ackerman said. “They do that on your social media account all day long. If there’s a social media post that’s against Democrats or against Republicans, it’s probably from foreign agitators.”
Ackerman noted that foreign interference that may change votes is not occurring, at least not in Illinois.
Overall, Ackerman says he was “disappointed” by the speech, mainly because people on either side of the political aisle made up their minds about the speech before Trump made it.
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