A number of bills were introduced last week that will likely be of interest to local governments. One of those bills deals with the “recall” of elected officials. Illinois HB 340 proposes to create the “Local Government Elected Officials Act” to provide a process for “recalling” (i.e., removing from office) elected local government officials who were elected during a consolidated election. Similar bills have been introduced in past legislative sessions but have never made it out of committee.

Under this bill, a resident within the jurisdiction that the elected official represents would be allowed to file petitions with the local election official signed by the lesser of (1) 25% of voters in that jurisdiction who voted for Governor or (2) 10,000 signatures to request that the recall question be submitted to the voters at the next consolidated election. The ballot question language is required to be in the form as stated in the proposed bill, as follows:

Should (elected official) be recalled from (his or her) positions as (title of position)? (YES/NO)

If (elected official is recalled, who do you support to replace (him or her)?

(Elected official).

(Candidate).

(Candidate).

Anyone desiring to be considered as a replacement for a recalled official must follow the process set by the proposed bill, including filing petitions within the time-frame provided.

The bill includes home rule preemption language.

The bill does not provide any specific information as to what governmental units this would apply to – i.e., municipalities, park districts, library districts, school districts, townships, counties, all of the above?

As noted above, similar bills have not made it very far, so we don’t know whether this one will go anywhere but since it could potentially affect all local governments with elected members, we will keep you advised if it does move forward.