Skip to content

Effort at automatic voter registration fails in override vote

Illinois voters and taxpayers will have to wait for the cost savings and streamlined bureaucracy that would have come with enacting automatic voter registration in the nation’s fifth-largest state, Sen. Andy Manar, D-Bunker Hill, said.

The Illinois House on Tuesday was unable to follow the Senate’s lead and override Gov. Bruce Rauner’s veto of a measure to enact automatic voter registration. Approval of the measure would have helped Illinois maintain its status as a leader in making voting simple and convenient as possible, Manar said.

“I am amazed that automatic voter registration had broad bipartisan support in the Legislature just six months ago but today is no longer worthy of the same backing,” said Manar, who sponsored the measure.

“The unfortunate result of the House’s failure to override the governor is that taxpayers will continue to foot the bill for a redundant system of paperwork and red tape that doesn’t need to be that way in 2016,” he said. “Other states are figuring this out, and I expect Illinois will follow suit eventually.”

The House passed automatic voter registration 86-30 on May 31. The chamber’s veto override vote on Tuesday failed 67-47.

The Illinois Senate overwhelmingly passed the legislation 50-7 on May 31 and voted to override the governor 38-18 on Nov. 16.

Leave a Comment