Illinois Democrat Governor J.B. Pritzker says he will not pause the state’s automatic voter registration program despite hundreds of non-citizens having recently been discovered registered to vote, many of whom voted in the 2018 elections.

As Breitbart News reported, the Illinois Board of Elections confirmed this month that 574 non-citizens were improperly registered to vote, and 19 of those actually voted in the 2018 elections. The hundreds of non-citizens were kept on state voter rolls for more than 500 days before the Secretary of State’s office said the glitch was fixed.

In response, Pritzker said he will not temporarily stop the state’s automatic voter registration program, which first led to the issue, because there is “no reason” to do so:

“The glitch that was found by the Secretary of State’s office, and that was investigated, has been overcome, it appears,” Pritzker said at a Chicago news conference to discuss election security. [Emphasis added]

“It’s important for us to investigate that. I’ve called for that investigation, too. There are going to be hearings about it,” Pritzker said. “There’s no reason to have an across-the-board pause, especially when the glitch has been fixed, and we’re going to have hearings to make sure that we’re ferreting what went wrong with this glitch.” [Emphasis added]

Illinois is a sanctuary state that shields criminal illegal aliens from arrest and deportation. The state, like California, allows illegal aliens to obtain driver’s licenses and has an automatic voter registration system for individuals obtaining state IDs.

Non-citizens improperly being added to statewide voter rolls in sanctuary states that provide driver’s licenses to illegal aliens is not uncommon. In 2018, for example, California’s DMV admitted that it had registered 1,500 non-eligible voters, including non-citizens, over six months.

John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter at @JxhnBinder