* AP…

A lawmaker panel is expected to hear testimony on a measure that would automatically register Illinoisans to vote when they obtain or renew a driver’s license or state identification card.

The director of elections for Cook County Clerk David Orr is among those due to testify Tuesday in Chicago.

The Springfield bureau of Lee Enterprises newspapers reports there are roughly 7.5 million registered Illinois voters, about 70 percent of those eligible

* Erickson…

Secretary of State Jesse White has not taken a position on the measure while awaiting more details, including whether the change would increase waiting times at driver’s license facilities and boost costs to train employees to be election registrars. […]

State Sen. Dave Luechtefeld, R-Okawville, sits on the subcommittee that will debate the idea Tuesday at a hearing in Chicago.

He said he is not familiar with the proposal, but said he believes making registration automatic could result in uninformed voters going to the polls.

“If you have to go out of your way to register to vote, you usually have a larger stake in the process. I believe an uninformed voter can actually be harmful to the United States,” Luechtefeld said.

Sen. Luechtefeld’s belief goes all the way back to the founding fathers. It’s been a constant source of tension in our political process.

By the way, California recently became the second state, after Oregon, to enact automatic voter registration into law. From the California Secretary of State…

“Citizens should not be required to opt-in to their fundamental right to vote,” Padilla added. “We do not have to opt-in to other rights, such as free speech or due process. The right to vote should be no different,” Padilla added.

Gov. Rauner has, in the past, supported laws that make it easier to vote or to register, so we’ll see what happens this time around.

* Meanwhile…

Illinois’ next election isn’t until March, but you can go ahead right now and register to vote in it. More the procrastinating type? A new state law says you can now also register right up until, and on, the day of the election, at any precinct.

Republican Rep. Mark Batinick of Plainfield says that’s expensive; judging by how many took advantage of a trail run last year, he says “it would be cheaper for us to send a limousine to the people who are too lazy to register to vote, bring them down to the clerk’s office, have ‘em vote, take ‘em out for a steak dinner.”

Batinick doesn’t want to do away with same-day voter registration; rather, he proposes scaling it back, so there’d be set places for voters to register on election day. His proposal says that in places like the suburban collar counties only one, centralized same-day voter registration location would be required for every hundred thousand residents.

* Rep. Batinick must’ve missed what happened in Chicago last November…

Brett Phillips headed to the polls at Welles Park in the early afternoon on Tuesday, thinking he’d outsmarted the lunchtime crowd of voters.

The joke was on him.

“I got here at 3,” said Phillips, as the clock ticked past 6 p.m. […]

At one point, the line of people waiting just to register — there would be another wait to vote — stretched outside the fieldhouse nearly all the way through the park to Montrose Avenue.

*** UPDATE *** From James P. Allen, the Communications Director at the Chicago Board of Election Commissioners…

Hi Rich,

In Chicago, 3,413 citizens used Election Day Registration at five sites at the Nov. 4, 2014 General Election.

We essentially extended by one day the time we used five early voting sites. Those were all in public buildings. The equipment was already in place. So the total cost was really staffing for an extra day. The staff downtown would have been here in either case, so there were no costs associated with this site. The approximate cost, if I calculate it on the high end, was $7,000.

That works out to $2.05 per voter who used Election Day Registration.

Best,
Jim