Kendall County Times

State Rep. Mark Batinick (R-Plainfield) believes a new law that makes changes to the state's Election Code is another example of a change made to "favor Democratic constituencies." 

The legislation, titled Senate Bill 536, allows political campaign funds to be used for the care of a  candidate's dependent family member as long as it is "necessary for the fulfillment of political, governmental, or public policy duties, activities, or purposes," according to the Illinois General Assembly website.

"If people were serious about expanding voter access for everyone, not just for the favored constituencies, you'd see something like my House Bill 4137 ... but it's not," Batinick said. 

He pointed to other changes made to the Election Code for his opposition to the bill which includes same-day voter registration, giving high school students two hours out of school to vote, and basing the automatic mailing of absentee ballots to people who voted in 2018 to name a few.

"When we did automatic voter registration, certain welfare things, unemployment checks, you were automatically registered to vote," Batinick said. "But by golly, if you get a FOID card or a CCL and they do a background check on you and they know where you live, you're not automatically registered. I wonder why that is? Why are we putting polling locations in jails but not in public hospitals? I think we all know the answer to that."

Batinick said that Democratic lawmakers don't want people who get their FOID card or CCL automatically registered to vote because they assume they won't vote Democratic. He also believed if 2018 was a Republican wave year, Democrats would have gone back further when it came to deciding whom to automatically mail absentee ballots.

"That's why we're wary of bills like this," Batinick said. "You're changing the law, how we vote, how we fund certain elections right on the heels of somebody, a Democrat, losing an election."

The bill was approved and signed into law by Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D) on Nov. 15.

The bill passed both chambers with a 41 to 17 vote in the state Senate and a 72 to 42 vote in the state House of Representatives. 

The legislation had one House sponsor, Rep. Katie Stuart (D-Edwardsville). It was co-sponsored in the Senate by more than a dozen Democratic senators.