-By Stephen Youhanaie
This act is to amend the Illinois Constitution Article IV, Section 2, Paragraph (c) to now read:
c) To be eligible to serve as a member of the General Assembly, a person must be a United States citizen, at least 21 years old, no more than 36 years old, and for the two years preceding his election or appointment a resident of the district which he is to represent. In the general election following a redistricting, a candidate for the General Assembly may be elected from any district which contains a part of the district in which he resided at the time of the redistricting and reelected if a resident of the new district he represents for 18 months prior to reelection.
The amendement is bold. It takes 8% of the previous votes (signatures required) cast for Governor to get on the ballot, a supermajority of 60% to pass, by the voters. Article IV, of the Illinois Constitution, is the only part that can be amended, by the electorate.
The only question that I wonder if this is more than a structural change?
An initiated constitutional amendment can amend the constitution under these conditions:
- An initiated amendment can only apply to Article IV of the Illinois Constitution.
- Signatures equal to 8% of the total vote cast for governor in the most recent gubernatorial election must be collected.
- Amendments are “limited to structural and procedural subjects” contained in Article IV.
- An amendment proposed in this fashion becomes part of the constitution if voters say “yes” by a supermajority vote of 60% of those voting on the question or a majority of those who cast a ballot for any office in that election.
In addition to the previous power of the General Assembly to propose amendments to the Constitution, this article allows voters to propose amendments to change the operations of the General Assembly. This article also attempts to regulate the actions of the General Assembly in proposing or ratifying federal constitutional amendments. These new provisions have resulted in several court decisions [1].