Voters to Consider Election Issues on Reproductive Health, Tax Reform and Election Interference

Lawmakers in Illinois are asking voters to weigh in on three hot-button issues at their ballot boxes this year: election interference, income taxes and reproductive health care.

Voters in Illinois are being asked three “advisory” questions that ask voters whether they support a specific policy, but are not legally binding. Lawmakers can take the results into account when considering which policies to advocate in future legislative sessions.

The three questions, as they appear on the ballots, are:

Will any candidate appearing on the Illinois ballot for federal, state, or local office be subject to civil penalties if they interfere or attempt to interfere with the official duties of an election official?
Should the Illinois Constitution be amended to create an additional 3 percent tax on income over $1,000,000 for the purpose of dedicating funds raised to reducing property taxes?
Must all medically appropriate assisted reproductive treatments, including but not limited to in vitro fertilization, be covered by any health insurance plan in Illinois that offers coverage for pregnancy benefits without limitation on the number of treatments?

These questions are being asked because lawmakers passed Senate Bill 2412 in early May, directing state election officials to add them to ballots.

“All three questions address issues that are important to voters or are issues that have been reported in the news media,” bill sponsor Rep. Jay Hoffman, D-Swansea, said in an interview this week.

The last time advisory questions were placed on Illinois statewide ballots was in 2014. That year, voters were asked three questions: one about a possible increase in the state’s minimum wage, one about whether insurers should be required to cover prescription birth control and one relating to income tax in excess of $1 million.

While Hoffman said he has “learned not to predict” what votes like this one will look like or how they will be used, he said the 2014 vote “ultimately led to the passage of the minimum wage increase.”

That measure passed in early 2019 after Governor JB Pritzker made a personal appeal to lawmakers shortly after taking office.

This year’s advisory questions generated little in the way of campaigning, but some Illinois politicians expressed support.

Former Gov. Pat Quinn is traveling the state to encourage a “Yes” vote on a tax increase on incomes above $1 million.

“It’s important for people to know that we have the opportunity to not only vote for candidates, especially president, but we also have an opportunity in Illinois to vote on issues, issues that could make a difference in family budgets for years to come. come,” Quinn said at a news conference at the Capitol on Wednesday.

The referendum, in addition to resembling an advisory question in 2014, echoes parts of a constitutional amendment that was presented to voters in 2020.

This amendment would have repealed the state’s constitutional requirement for a flat income tax rate — a step that would still be necessary to implement the policy outlined in this year’s advisory question.

When voters went to the polls in 2020, they rejected the change — a stinging result for Pritzker, who donated $58 million of his personal fortune to a campaign in favor of a graduated income tax.

Other attempted ballot measures

Some groups have tried to get different questions on the ballot this year without success. The Parents Matter Coalition, a conservative group launched late last year and supported by former Republican state representative Jeanne Ives, ran an unsuccessful signature-gathering campaign for a ballot question regarding parental disclosure for gender-affirming therapy and counseling .

That effort gathered only about 100,000 of the roughly 328,000 signatures needed, according to Ives. But the group was eventually replaced by the legislature because only three advisory questions can appear on a ballot in a given election.

At the time SB 2412 passed, Ives called it “an incredibly undemocratic way to defeat a constituency you oppose.”

In an interview with Capitol News Illinois this week, Ives again suggested that including three ballot questions was a way to nullify his group’s effort.

“They didn’t wait to see if we had the signatures,” Ives said, noting later that he intends to revive the effort and put the issue on a future vote.

Hoffman did not comment directly on Ives’ characterization of the questions and instead said they were selected due to public interest.

“These three issues were at the forefront of the media when we passed them,” Hoffman said.

Other legislators attempted to put constitutional amendments to a vote, including proposals dealing with ethics reforms, guaranteeing hunting rights, voting qualifications, and abortion.

In total, 34 constitutional changes have been introduced since the beginning of 2023 that could have appeared on this year’s vote. They came mostly from Republicans, although five came from Democrats and one was introduced with bipartisan sponsorship.

None were considered in a legislative committee.

Local referendums

Several counties will also weigh in on a local measure that is part of a broader secessionist movement in Illinois.

Voters in Calhoun, Clinton, Greene, Iroquois, Jersey, Madison and Perry counties will vote on whether upstate counties should consider seceding from Cook County to form a new state.

Since 2019, at least 25 other counties out of Illinois’ 102 have asked voters similar questions. With the addition of the seven counties considering the issue in 2024, about 10.9 percent of the Illinois population outside of Cook County will have had the opportunity to vote on the issue since 2019.

In each of the counties that have considered this, the results have leaned heavily in favor of secession. Between 70% and 83% of voters in those counties favor exploring a split from Cook County, according to Illinois Separation, a group that advocates for such referendums.

The proposal faces great odds of coming to fruition. It would require action in Springfield and Congress and has only happened three times in American history. Kentucky seceded from Virginia in 1792, Maine seceded from Massachusetts in 1820, and West Virginia seceded from Virginia in 1863.

Additionally, Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul told the Jersey County State’s Attorney in a 2023 memo that he believed counties without home rule powers do not have the legal authority to secede from the state.

In May, at an unrelated event in Madison County, the largest county to consider the issue so far, Gov. JB Pritzker said proposals like these “should not be on the ballot.”

“It shouldn’t be something that’s part of politicians’ lexicon and discussion,” he said. “We are a state. We are supporting each other.”

Other counties and municipalities hold referendums on various issues. For example, the Village of Oak Park and Peoria County are considering switching to ranked-choice voting in future elections. They also include routine referendums on whether to levy new taxes on schools, fire departments and other local governments.

To learn more about referenda on your ballot, contact your local election office — usually your county clerk — or visit Capitol News Illinois’ Local Election Guide.