Shell game in Springfield: A shell bill transforms into a proposal to put polling places in all county jails and then mutates (twice more) into a bill moving the primary from March to June

And so much more besides....

What follows, gentle readers, is the full text of SB825 as introduced on February 25, 2021 by Senate President Don Harmon. I include this as an image, lest I be accused of exaggerating.

This landmark legislative proposal was duly referred to committee, passed out of committee, and thereafter sailed through its First and Second Readings in the Senate.

And yet some say our legislature is ineffective!

The day after this historic bill was scheduled for its Third Reading in the Senate, on April 14, an "amendment" was offered. This "amendment" purported to replace everything after the enacting clause (all that careful draftsmanship gone to waste!) with an amendment to amend §19A-20 of the Election Code to allow county sheriffs outside of Cook County to establish temporary branch polling places in their county jails. (Section 19A-20 had previously allowed this to be done at the Cook County Jail.) A subsequent amendment was offered in the Senate on April 21 providing an effective date for this statutory amendment, but let us not get too bogged down in the legislative minutiae at this point, especially because none of it matters.

Suffice to say that SB825, now a substantive piece of legislation, albeit only three pages long, zoomed through the Executive Committee on April 21, arriving back on the Senate floor on April 22 where the "amendments" were adopted and the bill passed, arriving in the House and receiving its First Reading on April 23.

The bill was assigned to the House Ethics & Elections Committee on May 4; it was approved by that committee on May 11 and, on May 25, received its Second Reading.

Then, on May 30, the penultimate day of the legislative session, an "amendment" was filed in the House, once again deleting everything after the enacting clause, and adding 156 pages of stuff. Tucked away in there were provisions needed to move the March primary into June. This was the big story. The rumor that this was in the works had been circulating for some days. After the rumor appeared in Politico Illinois Playbook, I even reported it here (on May 28). Capitol Fax linked to this first House "amendment" in a May 31 post.

But the dough had only begun to rise. On May 31, just this past Monday, the very last day of the session, the 156 page House Amendment No. 1 was withdrawn and a new House Amendment No. 2 was substituted in its stead. This "amendment" also deleted everything after the enacting clause and added 447 pages of stuff.

Now, I ask you -- even if you support everything in these 447 pages -- and how could you know what was in there -- not even Evelyn Wood could plow through all that text in the few minutes legislators had to consider it, along with all the other things foisted on the General Assembly in its closing hours -- is this any way to run a government?

Anyway, yes, SB825, as ultimately amended (the Senate promptly concurring in the bill as amended) also moves the March primary to June 28. That did not take 447 pages. So what else does SB825 purport to do? SB825 also:

• Requires election authorities to use ".gov" website addresses and take steps to insure the integrity of those websites;


• Requires the ISBE to prepare a one-page document explaining the voter registration process to high school students and requires high schools to provide this document to students;


• Prohibits high schools from prohibiting nonpartisan voter registration activities on school grounds;


• Requires the ISBE to provide guidance to local election authorities about ballot tracking procedures and related terminology and summarizing requirements for voting, curbside voting, early voting, and vote by mail;


• Sets January 13, 2022 as the start date for circulating petitions for the new June primary;


• Specifies signature requirements for 2022 only -- and, if I'm reading this correctly, reducing the expected judicial signature requirement by one-third (but, please, consult your election lawyer on this---I am not an election lawyer and I am not giving legal advice here);


• Permits vote by mail ballots to be requested between March 30 and June 23;


• Creates a petition filing period of March 7 to March 14;


• Sets an April 28 deadline for write-in candidates in the primary election;


• Provides for early voting to begin on May 19;


• Requires vote centers to be set up for the 2022 elections "at an office of the election authority or in the larges municipality within its jurisdiction" where voters can vote on election day regardless of the precinct in which they are registered;


• Repeals all of these special dates and requirements, including the many I did not mention, as of January 1, 2023;


• Makes Election Day -- November 8, 2022 -- a state holiday, but only for 2022;


• Provides that aldermen in Chicago and statewide will now be referred to as "alderpersons";


• Provides generally for gender-neutral language in the Election Code, deleting references to "males" and "females," referring to "committeepersons" instead of committeemen, and so forth;


• Changes the rules regarding the use of motor vehicles by political committees;


• Changes rules regarding the random audit of certain political committees;


• Adds a new section on curbside voting;


• Allows voters to join a list of permanent vote by mail status voters and specifies a procedure to be followed in this regard;


• Requires election authorities to notify qualified voters of the option to vote by mail and apply for permanent vote by mail status;


• Allows inmates in county jails outside Cook County to vote in temporary branch polling places within the jailhouse (the one-time full extent of SB825... remember?)


• Specifies public notices to be given when a vacancy occurs in the office of State Senator or Representative in the General Assembly;


• Specifically provides for members of the General Assemby to also seek election to any unit of local government (allowing St. Rep. Thaddeus Jones to run for reelection as Mayor of Calument City when his present term expires, and if he so chooses), and prohibiting any further moves by municipalities to prevent this;


• Extending the reapportionment deadline for county boards outside Cook County to December 31 and to develop or revisit any reapportionment decisions made this year in November, after actual Census data becomes available; and


• Making convicted felons eligible for municipal office after receiving a restoration of rights from the Governor (effectively reversing a recent decision of the Illinois Appellate Court which would have barred Markham Mayor Roger A. Agpawa from office);

That's not an exhaustive list; I'm merely exhausted. Also, the change to §7-10.2 of the Election Code, pertaining to name changes, probably deserves its own post, given the importance of that statute in a number of recent judicial elections. And I apologize in advance for any errors of omission or comission in the foregoing summary.

Anyway, SB825 now awaits the Governor's signature which, presumably, will be forthcoming. Mind you, presumption and reality sometimes differ -- but that's a story for a different day.