An Illinois House Committee this week is scheduled to consider a proposal to conduct some elections by mail.

State Representative Mike Boland says voting by mail would be more convenient, boosting turnout. And the Western Illinois Democrat says it would save local governments loads of money.

BOLAND: You don’t have to staff, you know, hundreds of precincts. You don’t have the voting machines everywhere, folks to haul them around and all this type of thing.

To test the system, Boland wants to try it out in some smaller elections first. Elections officials in Chicago and Cook County last week endorsed a plan to use mail-in voting for all special elections. But Tom Cross, the Republican leader in the House, says he has huge concerns about fraud.

CROSS: Not that anybody would accuse anybody in Cook County of fraud, but I would be very careful with opening up the door for mail-in because it’s just ripe for fraud.

The House elections and reform committee is expected to debate the plan Tuesday afternoon.