ALTON – Republicans Joe Hackler, a candidate for 112th district state representative, Ryan Spain, a House representative for the 73rd District, and Madison County Clerk candidate Mike Walters were interviewed prior to a voter reform discussion in O’Fallon late last week.
The three were each supportive of some major changes in regard to election integrity in Illinois and in the area.
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“I am thankful to have Rep. Spain and Tim Butler as election integrity experts to sit on committees,” Hackler said. “I think one of the biggest problems in the state of Illinois is a trust with government, whether it be local or state. One of the first things I think we need to do is to make changes so people trust the election process. If you don’t have trust in the election process, you will never trust state government at all.”
Hackler said he thought the Election Integrity Roundtable in O’Fallon went well and some good ideas came from the evening.
Rep. Spain said in the aftermath of Michael Madigan’s departure as Speaker of the House, that he has served as a Republican spokesperson on the House Ethics and Election Committee. He said a lot of good ideas have been brought forward that have been nixed. He pointed out that he believes voter IDs, along with other changes should be necessary at the polls. He said leaders would make sure and bend over backward to make sure everyone was able to obtain an ID if rules were put in place that required them.
He said more election judges and poll watchers are needed in the elections coming up.
“I am glad Joe pulled the town hall meeting together on voter integrity,” he said. “We have legislation that has stalled and we hope to take the majority in the House of Representatives so we can move forward with election changes.”
Rep. Spain expressed support for Hackler and his campaign.
Walters pointed out some voter integrity issues in recent elections that have come to his attention. He said that some changes to improve voter integrity are one of the major parts of his campaign. He also thanked Hackler for hosting the voter roundtable in O'Fallon.
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