Automatic Voter Registration system moves forward in Illinois amid a national push for access. Ballot Access News had an article recently with the latest:

On May 29, Memorial Day, the Illinois House unanimously passed SB 1933. It had passed the House on May 5 and now goes to the Governor. It provides that adult citizens known by the state government to exist will automatically be registered to vote, unless they opt out. The Senate vote had also been unanimous.

Because the Illinois voter registration form doesn’t ask applicants to choose a party, Illinois does not have the problem of asking these new registrants about their choice of party. Assuming the bill is signed into law, after a few years the effect will probably be to make it more likely that a petition signature will be considered valid. A larger proportion of signers (compared to the present day) will be registered voters.

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.