The movement to make the ballot box more accessible – not less – is growing from this past election’s pilot program for same-day voter registration.
A bill to make Election Day registration permanent could move in committee as soon as today.
The idea, the organizer says, is to be inclusive, not to further one ideological point or another.
“I know some people argue that they lean Democratic, but, at the end of the day, making sure that there is a fail-safe option on Election Day to be able to cast a ballot that counts is an important right that we all share,” says Marissa Liebling, program director and legislative counsel for Just Vote.
Liebling says the biggest problem identified is that people moved but did not know changing the voter registration address is its own process and does not go along with, say, changing your mailing address.
Liebling says the “photo-ID-to-vote” crowd needs to know that lower-income people go through day-to-day life, accessing public services and patronizing check-cashing storefronts with no photo ID just fine.
The group is a joint production of Just Democracy and Change Illinois.
www.justvoteil.org