Despite the Illinois Senate’s recent vote to override Gov. Bruce Rauner’s veto on automatic voter registration, the State House failed to follow suit on Monday, resulting in a no-go for the legislation.
The override failed by the slimmest of margins, by a vote of 67-47. Had the measure been pushed through — with just four more votes — drivers could have had their voter registrations renewed automatically unless they chose to opt out.
Because the tally fell short of the number of votes required for an override, drivers in Illinois will now continue to receive notifications asking whether they wish to update their voter status each time they renew their licenses.
Reaction was mixed on the House floor. Even some Republicans who originally supported the bill changed course from their original intentions, saying that it wasn’t quite ready for passage and required more tweaking.
“We didn’t make it right,” state Rep. Ed Sullivan (R-Mundelein) said. “We could do it better.”
Similarly, Rauner’s rationale for vetoing the bill focused on clarifications, specifically in the areas of fraud prevention and accuracy in statewide agency compliance.
Two local legislators cast “yea” votes during the roll call on overriding Rauner’s veto: state Reps. Mike Smiddy (D-Hillsdale) and Patrick Verschoore (D-Milan).
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