SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
'Victory for Voting Rights': Illinois Poised to Pass Automatic Voter Registration
It's a "win-win-win" for the state
Jun 01, 2016
In a development heralded as a win for democracy, Illinois lawmakers on Tuesday passed legislation to enact automatic voter registration.
It marks "a landmark victory for voting rights," according to the Brennan Center for Justice's Jonathan Brater, who adds that the move "in the nation's fifth most populous state is a big deal in a year when the media spotlight is focused on new burdens voters will face at the polls in 2016."
The House passed the measure 86-30, and it now heads to the desk of Gov. Bruce Rauner, who has indicated support for it, saying last month that he was a "big fan of simplifying the voter registration process" and "very supportive of everybody who should be voting, get them registered and get them voting."
The Land of Lincoln would become the sixth state to have automatic voter registration, joining California, Connecticut, Oregon, Vermont, and West Virginia.
The measure was sponsored by State Sen. Andy Manar (D-Bunker Hill), who previously said, "We should not be content with only having a small fraction of eligible Illinoisans voting, we should strive for 100 percent."
As Brater explains,
Automatic voter registration is a simple but transformative policy tweak: instead of opting in to being on the voter rolls, eligible citizens opt out. For example, when an eligible individual visits the DMV, the information she provides for her driver's license is automatically and electronically passed on to election officials. This increases registration rates, and cuts down on errors and other inefficiencies from old-fashioned, ink-and-paper registration.
Calling it "win-win-win" for the state, Abraham Scarr, director of Illinois Public Interest Research Group (PIRG), argued in an op-ed for the St. Louis Post Dispatch that automatic voter registration "will strengthen our democracy, increase the accuracy and integrity of our voter lists, and save taxpayers money."
The development in Illinois comes as a new poll shows that 90 percent of voters lack confidence in the country's political system and amid a widespread attack on voting rights.
An Urgent Message From Our Co-Founder
Dear Common Dreams reader, It’s been nearly 30 years since I co-founded Common Dreams with my late wife, Lina Newhouser. We had the radical notion that journalism should serve the public good, not corporate profits. It was clear to us from the outset what it would take to build such a project. No paid advertisements. No corporate sponsors. No millionaire publisher telling us what to think or do. Many people said we wouldn't last a year, but we proved those doubters wrong. Together with a tremendous team of journalists and dedicated staff, we built an independent media outlet free from the constraints of profits and corporate control. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. Building Common Dreams was not easy. Our survival was never guaranteed. When you take on the most powerful forces—Wall Street greed, fossil fuel industry destruction, Big Tech lobbyists, and uber-rich oligarchs who have spent billions upon billions rigging the economy and democracy in their favor—the only bulwark you have is supporters who believe in your work. But here’s the urgent message from me today. It's never been this bad out there. And it's never been this hard to keep us going. At the very moment Common Dreams is most needed, the threats we face are intensifying. We need your support now more than ever. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. When everyone does the little they can afford, we are strong. But if that support retreats or dries up, so do we. Will you donate now to make sure Common Dreams not only survives but thrives? —Craig Brown, Co-founder |
Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.
In a development heralded as a win for democracy, Illinois lawmakers on Tuesday passed legislation to enact automatic voter registration.
It marks "a landmark victory for voting rights," according to the Brennan Center for Justice's Jonathan Brater, who adds that the move "in the nation's fifth most populous state is a big deal in a year when the media spotlight is focused on new burdens voters will face at the polls in 2016."
The House passed the measure 86-30, and it now heads to the desk of Gov. Bruce Rauner, who has indicated support for it, saying last month that he was a "big fan of simplifying the voter registration process" and "very supportive of everybody who should be voting, get them registered and get them voting."
The Land of Lincoln would become the sixth state to have automatic voter registration, joining California, Connecticut, Oregon, Vermont, and West Virginia.
The measure was sponsored by State Sen. Andy Manar (D-Bunker Hill), who previously said, "We should not be content with only having a small fraction of eligible Illinoisans voting, we should strive for 100 percent."
As Brater explains,
Automatic voter registration is a simple but transformative policy tweak: instead of opting in to being on the voter rolls, eligible citizens opt out. For example, when an eligible individual visits the DMV, the information she provides for her driver's license is automatically and electronically passed on to election officials. This increases registration rates, and cuts down on errors and other inefficiencies from old-fashioned, ink-and-paper registration.
Calling it "win-win-win" for the state, Abraham Scarr, director of Illinois Public Interest Research Group (PIRG), argued in an op-ed for the St. Louis Post Dispatch that automatic voter registration "will strengthen our democracy, increase the accuracy and integrity of our voter lists, and save taxpayers money."
The development in Illinois comes as a new poll shows that 90 percent of voters lack confidence in the country's political system and amid a widespread attack on voting rights.
In a development heralded as a win for democracy, Illinois lawmakers on Tuesday passed legislation to enact automatic voter registration.
It marks "a landmark victory for voting rights," according to the Brennan Center for Justice's Jonathan Brater, who adds that the move "in the nation's fifth most populous state is a big deal in a year when the media spotlight is focused on new burdens voters will face at the polls in 2016."
The House passed the measure 86-30, and it now heads to the desk of Gov. Bruce Rauner, who has indicated support for it, saying last month that he was a "big fan of simplifying the voter registration process" and "very supportive of everybody who should be voting, get them registered and get them voting."
The Land of Lincoln would become the sixth state to have automatic voter registration, joining California, Connecticut, Oregon, Vermont, and West Virginia.
The measure was sponsored by State Sen. Andy Manar (D-Bunker Hill), who previously said, "We should not be content with only having a small fraction of eligible Illinoisans voting, we should strive for 100 percent."
As Brater explains,
Automatic voter registration is a simple but transformative policy tweak: instead of opting in to being on the voter rolls, eligible citizens opt out. For example, when an eligible individual visits the DMV, the information she provides for her driver's license is automatically and electronically passed on to election officials. This increases registration rates, and cuts down on errors and other inefficiencies from old-fashioned, ink-and-paper registration.
Calling it "win-win-win" for the state, Abraham Scarr, director of Illinois Public Interest Research Group (PIRG), argued in an op-ed for the St. Louis Post Dispatch that automatic voter registration "will strengthen our democracy, increase the accuracy and integrity of our voter lists, and save taxpayers money."
The development in Illinois comes as a new poll shows that 90 percent of voters lack confidence in the country's political system and amid a widespread attack on voting rights.
We've had enough. The 1% own and operate the corporate media. They are doing everything they can to defend the status quo, squash dissent and protect the wealthy and the powerful. The Common Dreams media model is different. We cover the news that matters to the 99%. Our mission? To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. How? Nonprofit. Independent. Reader-supported. Free to read. Free to republish. Free to share. With no advertising. No paywalls. No selling of your data. Thousands of small donations fund our newsroom and allow us to continue publishing. Can you chip in? We can't do it without you. Thank you.