Glitch in Ill. Bmotor-voterB law prevents hundreds from voting

By The Associated Press Hundreds of Illinoisans who thought they had registered to vote when they got their driverBs licenses were not able to cast ballots Tuesday, election officials said. Dan White, assistant director of the Illinois State Board of Elections, said many counties reported they were having the same problem. He didnBt know why the registration information never made it to election officials.

BIBve talked to some people who have called. TheyBre very upset; itBs a sad situation. I wish there was something we could do, but there is not,B he said.

The so-called Bmotor-voterB provision, which allows people to register to vote when they get their driverBs licenses, has been in affect since 1996.

Margie Mullins, the election supervisor for the Winnebago County Clerk, said her office never received the voter registration cards for Ba few hundredB people who said they had signed up at the licensing centers run by the Secretary of StateBs office.

Mullins said she allowed those to vote who could show the voter registration receipts they had received from the centers.

Clerks in Chicago as well as Cook, St. Clair, Champaign, Rock Island, DuPage and Peoria counties told a similar story, but the scale of the problem did not appear as widespread as it was in Winnebago County.

Dave Druker, a spokesman for Secretary of State Jesse White, did not immediately return a page from a reporter seeking comment.

http://www.courierpress.com/cgi-bin/view.cgi?/200011/08+motor110800_news.html+20001108+news

-- Doris (reaper@pacifier.com), November 08, 2000