Oak Park Senator Disappointed by Ruling Against Same-Day Voter Registration in Illinois

It’s National Voter Registration Day, but Oak Park’s Democratic Senator Don Harmon isn’t entirely happy.

The Associated Press reported that today, a federal judge temporarily blocked same-day voter registration in highly populated areas of Illinois. State republicans had claimed that, since many conservative voters may not live in highly accessible or populated areas, it may be harder for them to have the same access to same-day registration as Democratic voters.

Judge Samuel Der-Yeghiayan’s decision will keep possible voters from registering on Nov. 8 in more urban areas of the state, including Chicago, and comes on the heels of the first presidential debate.

“How disappointing that on National Voter Registration Day — a day intended to reind people of their right to register and vote in this country — a blatantly political effort to quell participation in Illinois election was able to get a toehold in a courtroom,” Harmon said in a statement.

Harmon was the chief Senate sponsor of the same-day voter registration initiative in 2014. The effort was challenged in court in August by a Republican think tank headed by Republican Governor Bruce Rauner.

“Rather than seeking to scale back opportunities to register to vote in certain parts of Illinois,” Harmon said in his statement, “we should be working to expand access to the polls in all communities throughout the state.”