Ruling hurts Election Day registration in Illinois

CHICAGO — Voters in highly populated areas of Illinois will have fewer options to register on Election Day this November after a federal judge on Tuesday temporarily halted broader registration rules Republicans call unconstitutional.

Judge Samuel Der-Yeghiayan’s move means there’ll be no same-day registration on Nov. 8 at individual polling places in mostly urban areas such as Chicago; voters instead will have to go to major county or election jurisdiction offices. Wider questions about the constitutionality of the Democrat-led Legislature’s 2015 expansion of same-day registration linger before the court.

An appeal is likely, according to election officials.

More than a dozen other states have changed voting and registration rules in place for November, something election officials in Illinois and elsewhere warned will create “chaos” the night of the high-stakes presidential contest.

Illinois rolled out Election Day registration with a 2014 pilot program that required authorities to offer same-day registration in at least one location. Voters took advantage, with long lines seen in Chicago. The following year, lawmakers made it permanent and expanded it, requiring highly populated areas to allow voters register in their precincts on Election Day; roughly 110,000 people did so in the March primary.

Republicans sued in August, arguing the poll-level registration rules created an unfair and unequal system because voters in less populated and GOP-leaning areas of Illinois didn’t have equal access. For example, a rural voter might have to travel longer to register at a clerk’s office.