Oct. 19 – When Illinois voters go to the polls this election season, they will have the opportunity to vote on three statewide advisory questions aimed at giving residents a chance to voice their opinions on a few key issues.
These issues — involving election worker protections, property tax relief and supported reproductive health — were all decided by Illinois representatives, according to Matt Dietrich, public information officer for the Illinois State Board of Elections.
“All three of them came from the Illinois General Assembly, so the legislators voted and decided to put these questions on the ballot,” Dietrich said. “There can only be three statewide advisory questions on a ballot, so by doing these three it meant there couldn’t be citizen initiative type advisory questions.”
The questions are intended to help Illinois lawmakers better understand the opinions and needs of their constituents, Dietrich says, so votes will be unenforceable.
“If you vote ‘yes’ on it, that doesn’t mean that… it will come into effect. Sometimes they are used to gauge public opinion on a particular topic. So if an audience votes ‘yes’ overwhelmingly, then you may see the legislation later,” Dietrich said.
However, these requests for advice can be of great importance in moving legislation forward. In one example, a statewide minimum wage advisory vote was cast a few election cycles ago. The results ultimately led to a change in legislation.
“It got a large majority of ‘yes’ votes, so later the General Assembly passed a bill to increase the minimum wage. So that’s how these things happen sometimes.”
