Local officials say with election interference back in the news, they wanted to take the time to dispel rumors or doubts about elections in Central Illinois.

Not long after Robert Mueller testified, Tazewell County Clerk John Ackerman said he received some calls from concerned voters.

“[The calls were] basically about vote manipulation, afraid that the vote totals could be manipulated or changed in anyway,” said Ackerman.

Ackerman said while there were issues nationally with meddling in 2016, voters in Central Illinois need not worry about the security of their vote in 2020.

“It’s impossible to manipulate the vote, so a citizen casting a vote it is their vote, nobody else is getting in and placing votes and changing the way they vote,” he added.

Ackerman said officials work round the clock to secure elections, “County Clerks throughout Illinois aren’t sitting back being reactive, we’re being proactive, each day we’re strengthening our databases, our systems.”

Thomas Bride of the Peoria County Election Commission said work is also being done to eliminate any sort of cyber threats.

“There’s been a lot of work done both locally at the state level and the national level to educate and put policies and procedures and equipment in place to address the cyber security issues,” said Bride.

He added that he rarely sees fraud in voting and when he does, it is usually individuals voting twice by accident.