More than just a ballot on Nov. 4

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PRINCETON — To conduct next month’s election, Bureau County Clerk Kami Hieronymus is going to need 25,000 sheets of blue paper. That’s the result of a ruling handed down last week by Judge Nathaniel Howse of the Cook County Circuit Court regarding the wording on the referendum about whether Illinois should hold a Constitutional Convention.

Every 20 years, voters are asked if the state should hold a Constitutional Convention, but this year, the Chicago Bar Association, Lt. Gov. Pat Quinn and a group of voters filed a lawsuit against the Secretary of State Election Board over alleged biased and illegal wording of the referendum.

The dispute came about because of an allegedly biased “explanation of proposed call” paragraph that voters are prompted to read before getting to the actual question.

According to the lawsuit, the original wording advanced an anti-Constitutional Convention viewpoint by pointing out that the 1988 con-con referendum was defeated by a 75 percent-25 percent margin without noting that the question had been approved by a similarly overwhelming margin in 1968; informing voters that failing to vote on the question is the equivalent of a negative vote; and prompting voters to vote one way or another only for certain listed, acceptable reasons.

Howse agreed.

“I believe the language is not accurate [and] interferes with the rights of voters,” he said in his ruling.

Rather than reprint hundreds of thousands of ballots, Howse ordered election officials to print notices directing voters to disregard the false information. According to the notice, voters are told the “Notice” and “Explanation of Proposed Call” on the referendum have been ruled inaccurate and incorrect and should be ignored.

That’s where Hieronymus and the 25,000 sheets of blue paper come in. Based on the judge’s ruling, she will have to make 25,000 copies of the notice, one for every registered voter in the county. The notices will be sent out to each absentee voter, handed to all the early voters, and sent out to all the precincts on Election Day, one for each registered voter.

In addition to making all the copies, there will also be the issue of disposing of 25,000 sheets of blue paper after the voters are done voting.

“Not everybody’s going to put them in their pocket,” Hieronymus said. “Some people will try to stick them in the ballot box.”

Others undoubtedly will leave them lying around or drop them on the way to their cars, leaving a sea of blue around area polling sites.

The state is not picking up the bill for fixing its mistake, and Hieronymus wasn’t sure of the cost of 25,000 sheets of blue paper and the cost to make 25,000 copies.

“We’ll figure it out down the road for sure,” she said.

More information

According to the notice, “This proposal deals with a call for a state Constitutional Convention. The last such convention was held in 1969-1970, and a new Constitution was adopted in 1970. The 1970 Illinois Constitution requires that the question of calling a convention be placed before the voters every 20 years. If you support the calling of a Constitutional Convention, vote “Yes.” If you oppose the calling of a Constitutional Convention, vote “No.”

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