By AP/KWMU
Springfield, Ill – Illinois will miss a January 1 deadline to have vote-fraud prevention measures in place.
But Dan White, the state's top election official, says the current system safeguards against abuse, and the state is making haste to comply with the federal Help America Vote Act.
He says he doesn't expect to lose any of the $98 million the state has received for creating a statewide database of registered voters and buying updated voting equipment.
White says the new database won't be ready until 2008.
The Justice Department says it's evaluating the situation in Illinois and other states.
White says Illinois has a statewide database that allows local election authorities to compare their voter rolls to the state's and find duplicates or other potential avenues of abuse.
But it must be a two-way system that lets local officials update the statewide database.