How Automatic Voter Registration Will Change Illinois

Automatic voter registration in Illinois is set to boost voter turnout and realign the political balance. From the Chicago Sun Times:

The legislation would automatically register eligible voters when they interact with the secretary of state’s office or with other state agencies, unless they decline. It builds on the Motor Voter reforms, but those were “opt-in” reforms; voters had to decide to take advantage. This is an opt-out reform; voters are automatically registered unless they decide not to. The difference will end up registering hundreds of thousands of eligible voters.

“Automatic voter registration is a win-win for all,” Cook County Clerk David Orr, one of the champions of the reform, told the Brennan Center for Justice. “It takes the burden of updating voter registration off the backs of voters and shifts it onto government, where it belongs.” It also helps government maintain updated, clean voter rolls, reducing the threat of partisan purges.

Boosting voter turnout should be a bipartisan effort but one party remains opposed to solutions. The GOP is simply not being open about the issue using the false voter fraud issue as a front. Daily Kos posted today about the drive for automatic voter registration:

Automatic voter registration is common sense, and should be enacted in every state. The United States has an abysmal voter turnout record compared to the rest of the developed word. Only 55.7 percent of eligible voters in America cast a ballot for the 2016 presidential election. Comparatively, in the country with the highest percentage for voter turnout, Belgium, 87.2 percent of eligible citizens vote. The recent French election saw the lowest voter turnout there since 1974 at 65.3 percent, a figure that still blows the U.S. out of the water.

Eliminating the cumbersome, bureaucratic process of registering to vote in the U.S. is a no brainer. Who could possibly be against? Drum roll please… Republicans. Republican Governor of Illinois Bruce Rauner vetoed a similar version of the bill last year, citing bogus “voter fraud” concerns. Following President Trump’s bizarre and ludicrous claims that “millions of illegals” voted for Hillary Clinton, The Brennan Center for Justice found this year after an exhaustive examination that voter fraud is incredibly rare, even calling it a “myth.” There is simply no evidence that voter fraud has played any role whatsoever in any recent election in the United States.

Republican opposition to common sense reforms like automatic voter registration need to be called out for what they really are: cowardly attempts to suppress voting, particularly for low-income and minority people who are more likely to support Democrats.

Also, for more information on automatic voter registration see this post from the Brennan Center:

Automatic voter registration, a new reform that will modernize voter registration and dramatically increase registration rates, is gaining momentum around the country. Eight states and the District of Columbia have already approved the policy. So far in 2017, 32 states have introduced bills to implement or expand automatic registration (and one more state has an AVR bill that carried over from 2016). A full breakdown of these bills, as well as those introduced in 2015 and 2016, is available here.

According to the National Conference of State Legislatures:

Automatic voter registration can be seen as new, or it can be seen as an updated version of processes put in place by the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 (NVRA). That law, also known as “motor voter,” pioneered a new way of registering to vote in America. It required most states to provide citizens with an opportunity to register to vote when applying for or renewing a driver’s license.

Now, states are taking this model one step further. Instead of giving someone the choice to register at the motor vehicle agency, some states automatically register that person to vote, unless the person decides to opt-out of voter registration. As of February 2017, seven states and the District of Columbia have authorized automatic voter registration. See the table below for details.