Proposed bill would require Illinois high schools to offer voter
registration
[March 20, 2026]
By Amy L Wong and Medill Illinois News Bureau
CHICAGO — A proposed bill bearing the name of the late Rev. Jesse
Jackson would require high schools to offer a voter registration
opportunity for all eligible students graduating from Illinois high
schools.
House Bill 4339, also known as the Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr. Young Voter
Empowerment Act, had 28 co-sponsors, all Democrats, when it cleared the
House Ethics and Elections Committee unanimously on March 18. The lead
sponsor, state Rep. Kimberly Du Buclet, D-Chicago, said the bill is
intended to increase youth voter registration rates.
“This bill is nonpartisan, meaning it’s not about picking a party or
picking a candidate. It’s just about getting people involved,” Du Buclet
said. “It’s not about Democrats, it’s not about Republicans. It’s just
giving our students the information and helping them get registered to
vote early.”
Du Buclet said she plans to speak to Republicans to see if she can gain
bipartisan support.
But some in the GOP said the party is reluctant to add more unfunded
mandates to school districts. Rep. Jeff Keicher, R-Sycamore, said in an
interview he also thought the act was “somewhat duplicative” since
Illinois provides an opportunity for everyone to register to vote when
they visit driver’s service facilities for their license.
“All I hear from schools on a bipartisan basis is ‘stop with the
mandates,’” Keicher said. “‘We need to teach kids and you keep throwing
additional things on our plate.’”
The measure does not provide funding or any guidelines for its
implementation, leaving some to worry that school districts could make
registration drives partisan.
Keicher added he’s not sure the bill would affect turnout.
“I’m a firm believer in voting and registering to vote,” he said. “I
think everybody who is legally registered should vote, but our problem
is turnout, not registration.”
According to a Tufts study released in April 2025, 41% of Illinoisans
aged 18-29 voted in the 2024 presidential election. Nationally, Illinois
ranks on the lower end for voters participating from that age group,
with Minnesota at the highest at 62% and Oklahoma at the lowest with
33%.
A companion bill in the Senate, Senate Bill 1786, is awaiting a
committee vote.
Support for the Bill
Chicago Votes, a nonpartisan nonprofit, supports the act. Frederique
Desrosiers, the policy and advocacy director at Chicago Votes, said a
strength of the legislation is that it applies to all of Illinois, which
addresses some of the gaps in voter engagement efforts.
“One of the reasons why I think this bill is so important is because a
lot of times voter registration efforts focus … on downtown Lakeshore
campuses, and a lot of times young people who live on the South and West
Sides aren’t really folded into the conversation and not really
encouraged and engaged,” Desrosiers said.
Franklin Hughes, a freshman at Dominican University and a student leader
at Chicago Votes, said he supports the act and emphasized the importance
of high schools offering students a chance to register to vote on school
grounds.
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State Rep. Kimberly Du Buclet is the lead sponsor of the Rev. Jesse
Jackson Sr. Young Voter Empowerment Act requiring high schools to
offer voter registration. (Capitol News Illinois photo by Jerry
Nowicki)
“Voting is a gateway to having a voice in decisions that impact young
people’s lives, and yet, many of us want to engage and don’t always know
how or when, and that’s why it’s so important that schools and youth
spaces become trusted places,” Hughes said. “This bill meets young
people where we already are and gives us a real pathway to participate
in our democracy.”
Andrea Durbin, Chief Executive Officer at Illinois Collaboration on
Youth, said that if the youth do not vote, those in power may not
prioritize their needs since voting is a method for constituents to
communicate their concerns.
“We need to make sure, especially if young people are exercising that
right and that power, (that) if they flex that muscle, people will pay
attention,” she said.
Rev. Jesse Jackson’s Legacy
Jackson, who died on Feb. 17, was a national voice for civil and voting
rights and a civic leader based in Chicago for six decades. In 1972,
Jackson organized voter registration drives and encouraged Black
Americans to vote.
Former Presidents Barack Obama, Joe Biden and Bill Clinton attended his
public memorial in early March. Obama said during his speech that
Jackson helped create the political climate for what would be the future
president’s campaign success.
“It was because of that path that he had laid, because of his courage,
his audacity, that two decades later, a young Black senator from
Chicago’s South Side would even be taken seriously as a candidate of the
presidential nomination,” Obama said.
Du Buclet said Jackson’s advocacy for youth voter registration and
legacy in the civil rights movement encouraged her to sponsor the Rev.
Jesse Jackson Sr. Young Voter Empowerment Act.
“The Reverend Jesse Jackson Sr. was such a trailblazer in fighting for
voting rights, particularly for children, for young people,” Du Buclet
said. “One of the things that was his vision was that students graduated
with a diploma in one hand and a voter registration card in the other
hand. That was part of my inspiration for the bill, just to try and
fulfill his vision and keep the voting rights vision and efforts going
forward.”
Amy L. Wong is a graduate student in journalism with
Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, Media,
Integrated Marketing Communications, and fellows in its Medill
Illinois News Bureau working in partnership with Capitol News
Illinois.
Capitol News Illinois is
a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service that distributes state
government coverage to hundreds of news outlets statewide. It is
funded primarily by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R.
McCormick Foundation.
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