By Townhall Chicago News Staff
A Chicago mayoral candidate’s campaign website left the voting history of roughly 1.5 million city residents available for anyone to download, according to a Monday report from the Illinois Answers Project.
The exposure raises urgent data privacy and election security concerns less than a week before the Nov. 3 general election, putting pressure on the campaign and election officials to address the breach.
Former Ald. George Cardenas, a longtime Chicago politician who launched his mayoral bid in June, operated the website that housed the citywide voter roll data, according to the report by journalists Andrew Adams and Alex Nitkin. The campaign site was “apparently written with heavy AI use,” the Illinois Answers Project reported.
Voter roll data typically includes names, addresses, dates of birth and records of which elections an individual participated in. While some voter information is considered public record in Illinois, the bulk availability of detailed voting histories for more than 1.5 million residents in a single downloadable file raises concerns about potential misuse, including targeted harassment, identity theft and voter intimidation.
The Illinois Answers Project, the investigative arm of the Better Government Association, published its findings on Oct. 27. The scope of the exposure encompasses a significant share of Chicago’s approximately 1.55 million active registered voters.
Cardenas served on the Chicago City Council before entering the mayoral race. His campaign has not publicly addressed the data exposure in detail.
Election security experts have warned that the wide availability of voter data can be weaponized to suppress turnout or target specific communities. The incident comes during an election cycle already marked by heightened scrutiny of campaign technology and digital practices.
The Chicago Board of Elections maintains voter registration records and has policies governing how campaigns may access and use voter data. Campaigns routinely obtain voter files for outreach purposes, but the public posting of such data on an open website goes beyond standard campaign practices.
Illinois law regulates the distribution of voter information and prohibits its use for commercial purposes. Whether the data exposure on the Cardenas campaign website violated any state election or privacy statutes remains unclear.
Early voting is underway across Chicago ahead of the Nov. 3 general election. Voters with questions about their registration status or data security can contact the Chicago Board of Elections at 312-269-7900.
