While the Illinois governor’s race has generated plenty of attention during this election cycle, the very first question facing voters on their ballots is actually a constitutional amendment.
That amendment, the Workers’ Rights Amendment, would codify union protections into the Illinois Constitution, and would prevent the state’s General Assembly from passing “right-to-work” laws in the future.
While most votes on the ballot require simple majorities, constitutional amendments in Illinois can take two different paths to passage. Here is a breakdown.
Path #1:
Under the Illinois Constitution, an amendment can pass if 60% of the voters who cast ballots on that specific issue vote in favor of the measure.
In 2020, Illinois voters faced a question of whether they wanted the state to switch to a graduated income tax, which would assess different levels of income tax levies depending on the income of the filer.
A total of 5,742,901 voters voted on the amendment, with just over three million voting against it. That made up 53.27% of respondents, defeating the measure by a wide margin.
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Path #2:
Under the Illinois Constitution, an amendment can also pass if a majority of ballots cast contain affirmative votes for the measure.
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This is slightly more complicated, but we’ll turn to 2020 for help again. In all, 6,098,729 ballots were cast in the 2020 election, meaning that just under 6% of voters did not cast votes on the amendment.
To calculate this figure, you can take the number of votes cast in favor of the amendment, which in 2020 amounted to 2,683,490, and divide it by the number of total ballots cast. In doing that, you find that 44% of ballots contained affirmative votes for the amendment, meaning that it failed to pass by that measure as well.
If the Amendment Passes
If the vote tally hits either of these thresholds, it will go into effect as soon as the vote total is certified by the Illinois State Board of Elections.
Under state law, that is required to be done within three weeks of the election.
For more on what the measure itself will do, you can visit this NBC Chicago explainer.
