Grace period voter registration starts tomorrow
If you are not registered at your current address, it's not too late!
You have a grace period of two more weeks to register to vote or to update your address, but you must do so at the office of the county clerk or election commission.
Thanks to Representative Robin Kelly and Senator James Meeks, Illinois citizens may register to vote for an additional 14 days past the regular deadline of 28 days before the election. That regular deadline is today, Tuesday, February 21. The additional two weeks of voter registration is a grace period, and grace period registration is available from Wednesday, February 22nd through March 7th.
This is the first election where grace period registration is permitted.
For details on the new law (which was SB 2133 in the 93rd General Assembly and is now Public Act 93-1082, read it here), see this page.
The bill passed both houses largely on a party-line vote and is one of the many bills that make life better for people because of a Democratic government.
Cook County Clerk David Orr's office deserves credit for supporting the bill early, and the Illinois Association of Clerks and Election Administrators also deserve credit for not opposing the bill (and coming to negotiate in good faith).
I don't think this new grace period is widely understood, so bloggers can help get the word out to include more people in the election.
8 comments:
The other widely not understood thing is you can start voting a week or so in advance of election day. It's really like election week now.
Make election fraud easier, didn't you mean to say?
No. Election fraud is largely a myth in the U.S. and is used to supress voter turnout. But no one who understands elections believes that anyone would go into a government office, present I.D. and engage in voter fraud (grace period voters need to go to the county clerk's office).
Dan, I wish you'd say that over on Kos.
or In These Times.
You should look into the HDO tactics in the 10th ward or Chinatown to know about vote fraud. Vote fraud is not a myth, it is alive and well in Chicago. You are either naive or a liar.
Bill -- nice reference! Last anon: check out this study (I can't figure out how to do fancy links in the comments like Bill):
http://www.demos.org/pubs/EDR_-_Securing_the_Vote.pdf
It's the most systematic study of alleged voter fraud in the nation (that I'm aware of) and the findings are that there is an extremely low level of fraud in the U.S. Some fraud always exists in any system, but it is a tiny aspect of our electoral system. At least, that's what the people who have studied the problem say. The anecdotes apparently don't stand up to scrutiny.
Dan,
I agree with you.
It's just some of your fellow Democrats have crossed a line (for me) questioning the legitimacy of our elections. It's not healthy political opposition.
B
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