Illinois Automatic Voter Registration Vetoed by Governor, Faces Override

image
Published: 15 Aug, 2016
Updated: 17 Oct, 2022
2 min read

Illinois Governor Bruce Rauner vetoed legislation last week that would have instituted automatic voter registration. However, the legislature may have the votes necessary to override his veto.

Senate Bill 250 aims to automatically register eligible Illinois residents when they visit driver service facilities. Under the legislation, a state employee would inform the applicant of his or her ability to accept or opt out. Currently, an estimated 2.6 million Illinois residents are eligible to vote but are not on the rolls.

Senate Bill 250 passed both houses of the General Assembly in May. Then Governor Rauner, a Republican, vetoed the legislation last week, citing issues of potential voter fraud.

In his veto message, Rauner said:

"We know that non-citizens have registered to vote in Illinois after obtaining a driver's license and voted in recent elections. . . . Each of these cases of voter fraud was caught by immigration officials, not the state of Illinois."

Despite the veto, Rauner said he sympathized with the efforts to increase voter participation.

However, he attested that the legislation does not comply with federal law. The governor said that the state Board of Elections must filter out ineligible individuals if the bill became state law. "Some of the agencies in possession of citizenship-related information are prohibited by federal law from sharing that information" with the Illinois Board of Elections, he wrote. Rauner's statement indicated how he sees voter fraud potentially slipping through the system.

State Senator Andy Manar, a Democrat and one of the bill's cosponsors, criticized the governor's veto. Manar said in a press release:

"The governor talks a lot about the need to streamline bureaucracy and cut government waste. Automatically registering voters would have allowed us to do exactly that. Although this veto is a setback, I will continue to work with advocates to ensure voting access is a top priority in Illinois."

The automatic voter registration legislation passed with large majorities in each legislative chamber. Legislators will return in November, and will likely challenge the governor's actions. Although not all Democrats voted for the bill, they have sufficient numbers to successfully override the veto.

Latest articles

Cartoon image of Cuomo and Adams running into each other with cars.
Adams and Cuomo Power Players Play Chicken With New York Elections
NYC Mayor Eric Adams and former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo are currently playing a game of chicken with each other – leveraging the city’s electoral system to pressure the other to quit the race. The question is: Who will blink first? Or… are they headed for a collision?...
14 Jul, 2025
-
3 min read
Open Primary NYC
5 Influential Forces in NYC that Threaten the Success of Open Primaries
New York City’s Charter Revision Commission (CRC) is considering a proposal to adopt a nonpartisan “Top Two” open primary system, which would allow the city’s 1.1 million independent voters to cast a ballot in primary elections they pay for....
14 Jul, 2025
-
13 min read
Tyson points at Trump with a marijuana leaf behind him.
Mike Tyson Calls Out Donald Trump to Make Good on Cannabis Rescheduling Promise
Mike Tyson, the former heavyweight boxing champion known as “Iron Mike,” is calling on President Donald Trump to make good on a campaign promise to reclassify cannabis under federal law....
11 Jul, 2025
-
2 min read