This year, I have seen an increasing interest in referenda and petitions. Most questions regarding referenda require some research because there are many different provisions regarding how to place a referendum on the ballot. Here is a little primer about referenda.

Voter initiated referenda are those referenda that are placed on the ballot after a group of citizens circulates petitions and gathers a requisite number of signatures to place a question on the ballot.

Governing boards can also place referenda on the ballot in some circumstances by majority vote of the governing board.

Binding referenda are referenda in which the result of the referenda will have an actual effect. For example, when a referendum is submitted to voters regarding the sale of alcohol, that question is binding.

Advisory referenda are those referenda that, if passed, would have no actual effect. For example, a group of citizens could circulate petitions to put an advisory referendum on the ballot saying that parking spots should be two inches shorter to encourage smaller cars. If such a referendum passed in a community, the governing body of that community would be under no obligation to follow through with the result of the referendum.

Advisory referenda can be placed on the ballot by the governing board of any township, municipality, county, or park district. Citizens of any government body can circulate petitions to place an advisory referendum on the ballot for that government body.

Advisory referenda require the valid signatures of voters representing 8% of the votes cast for Governor at the last gubernatorial election. The signature requirements for other voter initiated referenda are varied. Check the statutes or call our office for more information.

On a side note, some people have asked about the circulation of petitions to present to a governing body. These are generally unregulated by our office or Illinois statute. So if a group of citizens wants to circulate a petition asking the city to put a stop sign at an intersection, they can draw up the petition however they like, since the petition is merely advisory and doesn’t seek to have a question put on the ballot.

People with questions about referenda are always invited to call or e-mail our office.

HB 1968, which I previously commented upon (August 30), contains a number of important provisions. One was the subject of much debate last year and deserves some discussion.
In 2003, the Illinois General Assembly passed legislation implementing the provisional voting requirements of the Help America to Vote Act. The Illinois legislation included the following provision.

(b) If a county clerk or board of election commissioners determines that all of
the following apply, then a provisional ballot is valid and shall be counted as
a vote:
(1) The provisional voter cast the provisional ballot in the correct precinct based on the address provided by the provisional voter.

To most election officials, this language was clear. However, in 2004 a spate of law suits challenged language similar to this in Ohio, Michigan, and Missouri. The State Board of Elections, in a dubious legal move, preemptively advised Illinois election officials to administer the statute contrary to the clear language and instead to adopt the reasoning of the litigants in the various states. This would have required provisional ballots to have been counted in whatever jurisdictions the voter would have been entitled to vote in, regardless of whether the voter cast the ballot in the correct precinct. For the majority of election officials, this interpretation of the statute was not only incorrect, it was an invitation to anarchy. Under this reading, a voter in Rantoul, working at the University of Illinois, could go to a polling place on campus and be allowed to cast a vote for President, U.S. Senate, Congress, and every county wide office. It would make it nearly impossible to determine how many ballots would be cast in a precinct because the number of eligible voters for the precinct was essentially the population of the county.

Most election officials, including me, rejected the interpretation of the State Board of Elections and continued with the policy which we had already implemented and operated under in the March 2004 Primary and for which we had already trained our election judges for the November 2004 election. Some, like Cook County, implemented a modified system that counted votes cast in the wrong precinct for federal offices only. Prior to the election, the appellate court over the states of Ohio and Michigan ruled against the plaintiffs and declared that it was within the guidelines of HAVA to not count provisional ballots cast in the wrong precinct.

However, because the SBE issued their advisory opinion, many people felt that additional clarification was needed regarding provisional ballots, despite the clear language of the statute. HB 1968, which was signed this summer, added language that clarifies that the only ballots which should be counted are those cast in the correct precinct. It also added language which mandates that voters be instructed on the correct precinct for them to go to.

This legislation is exactly what we have been doing in Champaign County. When a voter does not appear on the list of registered voters in that precinct, the judges are instructed to contact our office to determine where the person should go to vote. If a person insists on casting the vote in the incorrect precinct, their provisional ballot is not counted.

It was certainly gratifying to see the legislature craft a policy that matched the one already instituted in Champaign County.