On Election Day, Ross Good spent about six hours in the Illini Union’s Pine Lounge observing problems voters were having with the proof of residency requirement.

Good, director of I-Vote and junior in LAS, said confusion arose as students who live in private certified housing and private apartments attempted to validate their local addresses. Good said the election judges stationed at the Union were not consistently enforcing the laws.

“The most important issue is the unbelievable incompetence of the election judges at the Illini Union and the massive inconsistencies,” he said.

There were problems with individual judges accepting unapproved documentation, said Champaign County Clerk Mark Shelden. He received one e-mail from an election judge who admitted to misunderstanding the law and accepting leases as proof of residency after the election.

Shelden plans to change the election judge training course and create a list of the forms of identification that do not prove residency to address the problems that students encountered.

Shelden said the proof of residency requirement has caused problems in each of the three elections that have occurred since the current voting laws were adopted in 2004, but that attempts to change the laws have never received sustained attention.

“After the election, it seems like all the people who cared about it at the time stop caring about it,” Shelden said.

The Illinois Attorney General’s office was notified of the inconsistencies early Tuesday afternoon. The office sent election monitors later in the day to the Union to make sure the judges did not require multiple, “unnecessary” forms of identification.

“Over the course of Election Day, it appears that the (County) Clerk changed the requirements and that the judges applied them inconsistently, resulting in some students being unable to vote,” Attorney General spokesman Scott Mulford said in a statement Wednesday.

Some voters should have been prepared to show multiple forms of identification, according to Shelden.

The amount of identification and proof of residency required for first-time voters depends on the method of registration each voter used, he said. Those who registered in person at the County Clerk’s Office did not have to show any identification when voting because two forms were required at the time of registration.

Voters who signed up at a registration drive or registered by mail, had to present two forms of identification, including one listing their local address.

“There’s no doubt that there is a disproportionate number of first-time voters on campus, so these requirements affect that area more than others,” Shelden said.

First-time voters were not allowed by law to use private lease agreements to prove their residency. Some people believe these requirements are too unrealistic for students to meet.

“If a signed lease doesn’t prove your address, that’s pretty ridiculous,” said Tony Fabri, Champaign County auditor and chair of the Champaign County Democratic Party. “The issue here is that there are students who are American citizens who are registered properly who were denied the right to vote (Tuesday) only because their roommate is on their power bill.”

Utility bills were accepted as proof of residency, but not all students receive bills addressed directly to them. Good also said allowing leases to prove residency would make the standard more reasonable.

Shelden said he is consulting with Good and others about bringing the proof of residency issues to the bodies that have the power to change them: the Illinois State Board of Elections and the Illinois Legislature.

“It’s not OK to disenfranchise voters, even if they’re students,” Fabri said. “I think the attitude among too many people is that ‘It’s OK, they’re students,’ and that’s just not right.”