The House Democrats muscled through a proposal yesterday to change the rules for filling ballot vacancies and would put three non-binding questions before voters this fall in order to crowd out a petition effort dealing with gender modification and parental consent.
Current state law gives major party candidates three ways of getting to the general election: They can circulate petitions and run in the primary; They can run as write-in candidates during the primary; or they can wait until after the primary and be appointed to the ballot by local party chairs, or committeepersons in Cook County, after passing petitions.
The bill, if signed by the governor, will take effect immediately, saving a targeted Democrat in southern Illinois from having to face a Republican candidate who was looking to be appointed to the ballot by local party chairs.
The bill’s other major provision would put three non-binding questions before voters dealing with election interference, a 3 percent tax on annual income above a million dollars with the money going to property tax relief, and mandated insurance coverage for in vitro fertilization.
The state limits the number of statewide ballot questions to three at a time, so the three questions will crowd out an effort asking voters if they want to require parental consent before minors can have “any gender modification procedure, gender identification counseling or gender therapy.”