Two Illinois legislators and conservative groups are attempting to push legislation that would put a state Constitutional amendment on the ballot that would allow residents to recall their elected officials.
Politico reports that the Illinois Opportunity Project, the group that was behind opposing the state’s graduated income tax amendment last year, has joined forces with State Senator Jason Barickman and 97th District Representative Mark Batinick of Plainfield to place a recall amendment on the ballot.
The announcement of the recall effort was allegedly planned for this week, but current focus on the Illinois clean energy bill forced the kickoff to sometime next week.
Illinois currently has what’s considered a very convoluted process to recall the governor that passed in 2010. It requires a lot voters to sign a petition, and signatories must come from at least 25 Illinois counties. It also requires the sign-off of a bipartisan group of sitting General Assembly members.
Barickman and Batinick’s measures would create provisions to simplify the process and also allow for state and local legislators to be recalled. Another measure would also create a pathway for citizen-led petitions for legislative referendums outlined in two other proposed constitutional amendments that would only apply to public acts which have been enacted for less than 90 days and cannot repeal spending bills passed by the legislature.
The GOP-led group would like to see an advisory referendum, measuring public support for the idea, placed on the November 2022 statewide ballot.