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Voting & Elections 03.4.2020

Washington Examiner: Advocates See ‘No Way’ Illinois Auto Voter Program Fully Running by November

“This lawsuit is really about trying to get the state to actually follow, not just the law that we passed but also other federal laws that are designed to protect voters,” said Jay Young, executive director of Common Cause Illinois.

Voting & Elections 03.2.2020

The Fulcrum: Illinois Has Badly Fumbled AVR, and Now It’s Being Sued for Voting Rights Abuse

"Unfortunately, the promise of voter modernization and inclusivity has not only gone unfulfilled, it now appears that even basic voter registration services are mishandled in disregard of repeated calls for transparency and accountability by non-partisan organizations in the state," says the lawsuit, filed by the Asian Americans Advancing Justice-Chicago, Change Illinois, Chicago Votes Education Fund, Common Cause Illinois, Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights and the Illinois Public Interest Research Group Education Fund.

Voting & Elections 03.1.2020

NBC 5 Chicago: Activists Sue Over Illinois’ Automatic Voter Registration

“Unfortunately, the promise of voter modernization and inclusivity has not only gone unfulfilled, it now appears that even basic voter registration services are mishandled in disregard of repeated calls for transparency and accountability by non-partisan organizations in the state," according to the lawsuit.

Voting & Elections 01.29.2020

State Journal-Register: Illinois Discloses Fresh Problems with Voter Registration

“Our coalition’s attempts to engage the Secretary of State’s office in a process of accountability and transparency have been stonewalled time and again,” Jay Young, Executive Director for Common Cause Illinois, said in a statement. ”’They’ve given us no way to verify the few claims they’ve made about fixing AVR.”

Voting & Elections 01.20.2020

The DePaulia: Illinois Voter Registration Bill Sparks Controversy Over Implementation

Automatic voter registration seemed to be the only thing Illinois state Democrats and Republicans could agree on in 2017. The bill received not only bipartisan, but unanimous support by state senators, making Illinois the 10th state to sign in automatic voter registration in August 2017.

Voting & Elections 12.16.2019

Medill Reports: Auto-Voter Registration in Illinois Not Complying With Law, Experts Say

Jay Young celebrated in 2017 when then-Gov. Bruce Rauner signed the automatic voter registration bill into law. Young, among several other nonprofit and voting rights advocates, thought Springfield’s approval signaled the end of a long, painstaking process that had required months of political appeasing and redrafting legislation.

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