Illinois advances effort to automatically register two million voters
Alice Miranda Ollstein
Politics Reporter @ThinkProgress. I cover elections, voting rights, and more. Contact me: aollstein@thinkprogress.org
18 hrs ago
BREAKING: Illinois advances effort to automatically register two million voters
The vote overrides Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner’s August veto.
An overwhelming majority of the Illinois State Senate voted Wednesday to override Gov. Bruce Rauner’s veto of automatic voter registration. If the House also passes the veto override bill, the state will add approximately two million more voters to the rolls in the state starting in 2018. Illinois is following on the heels of Oregon, California, West Virginia, Vermont, and Connecticut, all of which adopted the program over the past couple of years.
Christian Diaz, the executive director of the organization Chicago Votes, told ThinkProgress that anything aimed at increasing voter participation is crucially important following a national election marked by low turnout and voter suppression.
“There’s a rising electorate in this country that threatens the current power structure,” he said. “A lot of the hateful rhetoric we heard this election cycle was connected to this fear. This was the first election to happen without the national Voting Rights Act in place.”
Diaz noted that states which implemented voting restrictions, like Wisconsin, saw a drop in turnout, while states which adopted automatic voter registration, like Oregon, saw record levels of participation. “For many communities, voting now feels like a life or death decision,” he said, noting the gravity of President-elect Donald Trump’s proposed policies. “We need to make sure voting is accessible and available to every single citizen who wants to participate.”
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https://thinkprogress.org/breaking-illinois-will-automatically-register-two-million-voters-e9c73cc7ae0f#.1vxnd9f1h