The United States needs to invest more resources in the security of election systems, Cook County (Ill.) Director of Elections Noah Praetz told the Election Assistance Commission.

Last week Chicago’s City Council approved Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s appointment of Danielle DuMerer as CIO. In an interview with 21st Century State & Local, DuMerer discussed her work with the city of Chicago and her vision for its future.

Three years ago the state of Illinois ranked in the last quartile of states when it came to using IT efficiently. After two years on the job Hardik Bhatt, the state’s CIO, has transformed Illinois.

Chicagoans now have a one-stop shop for discovering which restaurants have outdoor seating, where TV shows are filming in the city, and restaurant health inspection results–a newly redesigned open data portal.

Chicago legislators urged the Chicago Police Department last week to consider using a device capable of detecting if motorists have been texting in cases that involve injury-related traffic accidents. Law enforcement officials would use the “Textalyzer” to scan a driver’s cellphone to determine if it was used to receive or send text messages during or just prior to a collision.

The states of Georgia, Illinois, Tennessee, Massachusetts, and Maryland have all discussed bills that restrict automated vehicle testing to motor vehicle manufacturers, which puts technology companies like Uber and Waymo at a disadvantage.

Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner has declared April to be Information Technology month in order to bring attention the state’s IT efforts and increase the IT workforce.

Efforts to upgrade Illinois’ legacy enterprise resource planning system–to the tune of $250 million–are jeopardized by political gridlock.

The University of Illinois’ supercomputer program is working to secure state-collected data and organize information in order to find solutions to state problems.

States looking to become “smart” can look to smart cities initiatives to inform broader statewide practices, according to Illinois government officials.