By Kim Howard–Illinois Information Services

2018 has been a year of new records and big challenges for the Illinois State Board of Elections.

The board found itself under intense scrutiny from around the country when Russian hackers targeted state election databases. Spokesperson Matt Dietrich says the actions forced state officials to look hard at certain hard facts. “It really put us on alert…that in today’s world it (hacking) is part of our election system,” Dietrich said. “That’s a reality that I think we all accept now. And I think the major thing that we took from it was the fact that countries outside the United States would try to interfere with our election.”

Dietrich says a huge positive in 2018 was the record number of registered voters for the November general election and the 57 percent turnout that day.