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* While watching today’s press conference about Gov. Bruce Rauner’s veto of the bipartisan automatic voter registration bill, two things stuck out for me: 1) Nobody in the Rauner administration ever spoke up during the drafting, committee hearing and floor voting process before it passed both chambers with overwhelming bipartisan majorities; 2) The governor’s claims that the bill put the state in violation of federal law were not true. This is from Abe Scarr at Illinois PIRG…
Rich,
State agency voter registration is governed by the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA), commonly known as Motor Voter. There are many requirements outlined and they differ between agencies like the DMV and social services agencies.
The key requirements at the DMV are:* individuals must be informed of the qualifications to register to vote
* individuals must be informed of the penalties for falsely stating they are eligible
* individuals must be given the opportunity to affirm their qualifications
* declining to opt in cannot result in any negative consequences for the individual in the underlying service transactionSocial service agencies have additional requirements:
* The question about wanting to register and affirm qualifications must be a yes/no question
* Individuals must get the same support from the agency in registering that they would in the underlying service transaction.
* Finally, individuals in the specific instance of updating their information at an agency must have the opportunity to decline to have their address updated. There is debate among NVRA experts if the opportunity to decline has to be at the agency or not.SB250 meets all of these requirements. The Governor’s message that individuals must be given the opportunity to decline registration at the DMV is a misreading of the NVRA. That -is- a requirement at the social service agencies, and for those agencies, the bill was drafted to place the opt-out at the point of agency interaction. It is not a requirement of DMV transactions. In those, individuals must have to have the opportunity to attest, but they do not have to attest, nor do they have to have the opportunity to decline at that specif moment. Under SB250, individuals have an ongoing opportunity to opt out, but not at the point of DMV interaction.
For address updates at the DMV, our original intention with SB250 was the same as other DMV interactions - a back end opt out. We communicated in negotiations that we would be ok with providing the opportunity to decline address updates at the DMV, if the individual is presented at the time with their current registration status.
That request of the Governor’s office, like most of their requests, could have and would have been incorporated in the bill language had they engaged in April or May - but they did not. We offered to make them in a trailer bill. The only requests (2 of 7) we did not agree to were to push back the implementation date one year - from 1/1/18 to 1/1/19, and their request to make all DMV interactions an up-front opt out. On the implementation date, they site the State Board of Elections as needing more time to implement. However, the State Board signed off on that date and supported SB250. Further, i we made the other changes the Governor’s office wanted, there would actually be less for the State Board to implement. On the opt-out, we maintain that it would not accomplish the fundamental goal of the legislation, which is to change the default status of eligible voters from “only registered if they take affirmative action to register” to “registered unless they take affirmative action to not be registered.”
* And here’s more from Common Cause…
“Governor Rauner’s staff explained that a primary reason he did not sign the bill is because he wants to delay implementation until 2019, after the next gubernatorial election,” said Trevor Gervais, Lead Organizer of Common Cause Illinois. “Playing politics with something as important as voting rights is absolutely unacceptable.” The bill was drafted with input from all stakeholders, including county clerks, the State Board of Elections, and the Secretary of State’s office, who made it clear that there was no problem with the original implementation date of January 1, 2018.
* And a group called Just Democracy Illinois (the Better Government Association is a member) connected Rauner’s veto to the Illinois Policy Institute’s lawsuit we’ve discussed here and which has received almost zero coverage by the mainstream media…
“Between Governor Rauner’s veto of Automatic Voter Registration, and the pending lawsuit that seeks to stop Election Day Registration, Illinois is moving away from making the franchise more accessible, and moving toward the sort of tactics that have suppressed the vote in other states across the nation. Now is not the time for Illinois to move backward on voting rights.”
posted by Rich Miller
Monday, Aug 15, 16 @ 1:06 pm
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“The governor’s claims that ________ were not true.”
Imagine that.
– MrJM
Comment by @MisterJayEm Monday, Aug 15, 16 @ 1:08 pm
And what exactly are these groups proposing to deal with voter fraud that seems pretty rampant in much of the city? An acquaintance of mine once was able to identify some precincts that had quite a few questionable votes being made, and they put a team in to observe one. Once they did a few challenges, a lot of workers got frantically on the phone and the vote totals were way low that year for that precinct.
Has David Orr EVER investigated Dem voter fraud in Cook County?
Investigating voter fraud in Chicago? Virtually never happens from the locals. No voter fraud there, I guess.LOL
Comment by Illinois Bob Monday, Aug 15, 16 @ 1:15 pm
Remember…
The governor elected in 2018, unless something seriously happens…
… will sign the next Legislstive Maps.
That’s all that’s at play with Rauner… that and “winning” to destroy Labor and Higher Ed.
Rauner telegraphs punches. Always has.
Comment by Oswego Willy Monday, Aug 15, 16 @ 1:15 pm
“connected Rauner’s veto to the Illinois Policy Institute’s lawsuit”
Bingo.
Comment by Dee Lay Monday, Aug 15, 16 @ 1:16 pm
Move implementation to 2019. Coincidence? I think not. It’s all about political advantage. Not encouraging voter participation in our democracy.
Comment by Norseman Monday, Aug 15, 16 @ 1:17 pm
Given the stakes of certain contests, especially the Comptroller’s race, it stands to reason that Madigan & Cullerton might call legislators back to Springfield for override votes. If so, do a few Republicans join in due to their “yes” votes on the matter or to push back on a governor who clearly has no regard for them?
Comment by Deft Wing Monday, Aug 15, 16 @ 1:21 pm
===With institutionalized voter abuse like this going on,===
I don’t think “abuse” means what you think it means Bob.
Comment by 47th Ward Monday, Aug 15, 16 @ 1:26 pm
In other words “Only the 1% shall vote.”
Comment by State Worker THX 1138 Monday, Aug 15, 16 @ 1:29 pm
The hit piece coming out against BGA happens in ….5…..4…3….2
Remember what they did to Edgar once he had strong wording for the Governor.
Comment by DuPage Bard Monday, Aug 15, 16 @ 1:32 pm
Nothing new to see here - the democrats pulled the same stunt with Obamacare, saving the worst for after the 2012 election.
Comment by DGD Monday, Aug 15, 16 @ 1:32 pm
How could anyone argue against making it easier for people to register to vote? “Voter fraud” is a myth used to suppress votes. So much for Rauner not having a social agenda. Can’t wait to hear his bought-and-paid for faith leaders explain this one away.
Comment by Albany Park Patriot Monday, Aug 15, 16 @ 1:33 pm
===Nothing new to see here - the democrats pulled the same stunt with Obamacare, saving the worst for after the 2012 election.===
===…it passed both chambers with overwhelming bipartisan majorities===
Uhh… Are republicans that voted for this also democrats??? LOL
Comment by Ducky LaMoore Monday, Aug 15, 16 @ 1:37 pm
What are the odds, there will be bi-partisan support for an override of the AV?
Comment by HRC2016 Monday, Aug 15, 16 @ 1:37 pm
-”Let’s all sign the term limits petition. Go to FixIllinois.com.”
Gee I wonder what safeguards are in place to prevent fraudulent activities with this media hyped petition signing fervor taking place.
First name, last name, email, zip code.
Now if only you could register to vote that easily when you are getting your drivers license.
Comment by Chicago 20 Monday, Aug 15, 16 @ 1:41 pm
This story points out what happens when you put amateurs in charge. Rauner’s legislative liaisons / floor leaders are supposed to be aware of this stuff and get it worked out BEFORE a bill reaches final passage … especially when it has support by both parties.
That they do NOT do so indicates Rauner just wants to use the topic as a political football.
Comment by RNUG Monday, Aug 15, 16 @ 1:55 pm
Absolutely unexcusable. Rauner is doing this because he is afraid of the youth and black vote.
No amount of Republican false equivalences (in these comments alone there are deflections to Obamacare and baseless fairy tales about “rampant voting fraud”) can justify this. Sorry Illinois Republicans, you backed this dud and now stand to face another 16 years of Dem governors.
Comment by Huh Monday, Aug 15, 16 @ 2:00 pm
By comparison:
The legislature just passed a law performing a statewide update to implement a new set of Administrative Rules. Federal government model code implementation.
Passed into law 07.15.2016, after 2.5 years of process.
Effective date set as 07.01.2018 for all units of local government. So that’s 45 days short of 2 full years.
Now, let’s look at this ‘update’ to AVR.
First off, it’s going to be bigger because it takes in every voting agency across the state.
Secondly, because it changes the entire process at the front end, it’s in effect requiring mods across the entire voter process. That’s going to be (at minimum) everything except Ballot Tabulation, and it may effect that process also.
And then you got to test all the mods to make sure everything works properly.
And then everybody involved in the election process has got to be trained up to handle the mods to an already extremely complex process.
And you want to go up and running with all of this effective 01.01.2018? Seriously??????
The people pursuing the implementation date of 01.01.2018 must be the elections version of the Pointy Haired Bosses.
It’s easy to do the work by a deadline like this when you don’t have any responsibility for actually doing the work.
Why are these folks trying to create an elections version of the whole healthcare.gov debacle?
Comment by Judgement Day Monday, Aug 15, 16 @ 2:04 pm
=== So much for Rauner not having a social agenda. ===
I know where you’re coming from, Albany Park Patriot, but in the Rauners’ minds *all* of Bruce’s agendas, including shuttin’ down social services, universities, etc., are just business agendas. In fact, as these things affect them and their friends, they’re pretty much right.
Comment by X-prof Monday, Aug 15, 16 @ 2:07 pm
Then he goes on the air pushing remapping, what a hypocrite!
Comment by Anonymous Monday, Aug 15, 16 @ 2:19 pm
I lean toward supporting automatic voter registration, although I have no clue what the real facts are such as if the law needs tweaked. However, it’s already pretty easy now to register and vote so I’m really not that concerned about this (heck, right now you can just show up on election day, register and vote). I’m much more concerned about equal ballot access and fair maps. In the end, those two things will probably help drive voter turnout more.
Comment by Ahoy! Monday, Aug 15, 16 @ 2:26 pm
Ahoy - One area that is definitely in dispute in the AVR bill is what should be the standard for an opt out. There are people who do not wish for their personal information to be public in the way the voter lists are. SB 250 provides that people who want to opt out at the DMV cannot do so directly. They have to wait until their data is already on the voter list and then ask for it to be removed. Until it is removed it is no longer private and so they cannot avoid having that data made public, at least for some amount of time.
Comment by muon Monday, Aug 15, 16 @ 2:43 pm
Illinois Bob will you have your Gelato or whatever it is before during or after you vote for Trump?
Comment by jw Monday, Aug 15, 16 @ 2:58 pm
I hope all of you complaining complain equally about Madigans stomping on the map redistricting. Both are anti- democratic
Comment by Sue Monday, Aug 15, 16 @ 3:27 pm
What is wrong with showing up to get a Lic and or go to the local county clerk and show a birth cert and register. state should have central file for Voter Reg like Jesse proposed many years ago only to be vetoed by a bunch of small towm county clerk downstate. Sounds like job protection.
Comment by scott aster Monday, Aug 15, 16 @ 3:30 pm
There have been 2 actual cases of voter fraud, out of millions of votes in Texas. Donald Trump has been married more times than that.
This is just another Republican dog whistle, like the “liberal media*.
Where is your budget Bruce? Your Constitutionally Mandated Balanced Budget?
Comment by Doug Simpson Monday, Aug 15, 16 @ 3:46 pm
Until there’s hard evidence something like AVR leads to fraud, it should be supported.
Also…Let the record show:
The insiders and vested-commenters who never complained about Madigan’s gerrymandering (let alone demand that the Dems put an amendment on the ballot rather than force literally millions of dollars and days of volunteers’ efforts to try to put one on a vote) are the same ones decrying Rauner for vetoing this bill
Any fair minded person is stridently anti-gerrymandering and stridently for anything that helps franchise eligible voters.
Comment by lake county democrat Monday, Aug 15, 16 @ 5:00 pm
“The governor’s claims that the bill in violation of federal law were NOT true.”
That one sentence says it all.
Comment by Mama Monday, Aug 15, 16 @ 5:26 pm
“The only requests (2 of 7) we did not agree to were to push back the implementation date one year - from 1/1/18 to 1/1/19, and their request to make all DMV interactions an up-front opt out.”
According to this he vetoed the bill for political reasons only.
Comment by Mama Monday, Aug 15, 16 @ 5:28 pm
Albany, I can argue against it. Why would we want more people who aren’t willing to make any effort to register to vote at the polls? If they treat their existing right to vote so dismissively, why in the world would we want to encourage them to vote?
Comment by Anonymous Monday, Aug 15, 16 @ 5:36 pm
anon 5:36 was me. And LCD, barely any of them are disenfranchised, almost all have chosen not to participate. It’s not such a terrible burden to register. You can already do it at a DMV facility, and at many neighborhood voter registration drives. All we need is even more disinterested citizens voting
Comment by steve schnorf Monday, Aug 15, 16 @ 5:42 pm
== It’s not such a terrible burden to register. ==
Almost every time I’ve moved, one or the other party’s precinct committeeman has shown up to register us before the door slammed from moving in.
Comment by RNUG Monday, Aug 15, 16 @ 6:28 pm
Wonder what Rev. Meeks thinks about this one.
Comment by HRC2016 Monday, Aug 15, 16 @ 7:18 pm
Rauner remains a complete and utter disappointment. Let’s keep our fingers crossed that this can be overridden. Overwhelming support for this legislation but it gets vetoed for specious reasons. A clear effort to keep the poors away from the ballot box.
Comment by DuPage Dave Monday, Aug 15, 16 @ 7:31 pm