Voting Rights Measure Fails, Alarms Immigrant Groups

Voting Rights Measure Fails, Alarms Immigrant Groups

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Advocates are dismayed that Illinois legislators killed a measure that would have expanded voting rights in Illinois. 

The Automatic Voter Registration bill sought to automatically register any eligible voter who interacts with state agencies, turning it into an opt-out process rather than opt-in. 

Advocates say it could have allowed hundreds of thousands of eligible immigrant voters to become registered. 

Governor Rauner vetoed it, and in an override vote yesterday, enough formerly-supportive Republican legislators flipped their position so that the override failed.