By Greg Bishop/Illinois Radio Network

SPRINGFIELD – . Supporters of competing measures to automatically register eligible Illinois citizens to vote are close to being on the same page. Questions remain on when it should be implemented, what agencies are going to be impacted, and how much it will cost. 

The idea is to automatically register eligible Illinois citizens to vote whenever they interact with a state agency. A measure from Sen. Andy Manar, D-Bunker Hill, last year didn’t survive Gov. Bruce Rauner’s veto. 

State Rep. Mike Fortner, R-West Chicago, said his automatic voter registration measure addresses Rauner’s concerns, such as keeping data secure, allowing people to opt out, and staying compliant with federal law. 

Fortner said his measure also is in line with Manar’s bill, except there’s no solid implementation date. 

“Because we want to tie in to the work of the Secretary of State with REAL ID and make sure all the state agencies involved have systems that know how to talk to that,” he said.

Abraham Scarr, director of the Illinois Public Interest Research Group, which supports Manar’s bill, said he would like to see the measure implemented in 2018 at the same time the Secretary of State’s office begins revamping its operations to comply with REAL ID, the federal ID standards. 

Scarr said another difference between the bills is Fortner’s only involves the Secretary of State “and it has a process for adding other state agencies. Ours has all of that plus a handful of agencies that already do voter registration under federal law.” 

Fortner said his bill also works to limit the financial impact to taxpayers. 

“There are going to be costs and we want to manage those costs, keep those costs down,” he said. 

However, neither Fortner or Scarr could put an exact taxpayer price tag on their automatic voter registration legislation. 

Regardless, Fortner said automatic voter registration could mean taxpayer savings for county offices that run elections.