SPRINGFIELD – With all the talk about potential election fraud leading up to November 8th, the fact that the Illinois General Assembly is opening the door to more problems seems almost incomprehensible, but that's what's going on, says Senator Dan McConchie.
The Hawthorn Woods lawmaker says the automatic voter registration legislation that received enough votes in the Senate to override the Governor’s veto would create a situation where the government leads non-citizens to believe they are legally allowed to vote.
“This legislation is very problematic,” said McConchie. “Under this proposal, non-citizens will be automatically registered to vote and then perhaps later removed from the rolls. If a non-citizen is registered and the state fails to remove that person in a timely fashion, they will get a voter card in the mail and likely believe they can legally vote. And if they do vote, they will be committing a felony."
Add to that Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel's promise to protect criminal illegals in his sanctuary city.
Senate Bill 250 does not require the state to screen citizenship records before automatically registering an individual. Instead, the state is supposed to check eligibility after the person registers and remove those they find are not eligible.
That vagueness in the proposal isn't a problem for Senate Democrats, who were giddy Thursday morning about their successful chamber vote to override Governor Bruce Rauner's veto.
Correction: Republican Senator Sam McCann disagreed with Governor Rauner and voted with the Democrats to support the override. One Democrat – Steven Landek of Burbank – opposed the override.
Still, the Democrats' support moved the bill forward to its last stop – the Illinois House.
"This automatic registration proposal will create all sorts of havoc in an electoral system that many people already do not trust. There are ways to encourage participation in the electoral process, but this proposal is fatally flawed,” McConchie concluded.
The measure easily passed the Illinois House in May, and the override attempt is likely to mirror that vote, and may perhaps include help from numerous Republican House members as it did on May 31st:
