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* As I told subscribers last month, the Illinois State Board of Elections sided with the IML in this lawsuit, so there was no actual dispute. But the governor was not happy with the board’s decision because the idea was to safely open up more polling places during the pandemic…
A Sangamon County Circuit Court judge has ruled in favor of the Illinois Municipal League (IML) and its member municipalities, stating a mandate to close all government offices on Election Day does not apply to municipalities. The ruling settles ambiguity within a measure passed by lawmakers earlier this year that would have required “all government offices” to close on Election Day.
The judgement, which is in response to a lawsuit (available via this link) filed by IML against the State Board of Elections, will allow individual municipalities to determine whether their offices will be open on November 3.
Without this exemption, this law would have imposed a new unfunded mandate on municipalities that could have cost local communities and taxpayers tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars in holiday pay and related expenses for first responders and village staff. These extra costs would have come at a time when cities, villages and towns across Illinois are struggling to fund crucial services, including police and fire, due to drastic drops in tax revenue because of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
“We applaud the court’s decision to uphold the authority of local officials. Local leaders understand the needs of their communities and must be able to make decisions in their best interest. This decision allows them to do so in respect to Election Day,” said Brad Cole, IML Executive Director. “At a time when municipalities have experienced added public health costs and decreases in tax revenue, many simply cannot afford the extra costs this mandate would have created.”
The decision by the Sangamon County Circuit Court Judge Raylene D. Grischow can be found via this link.
posted by Rich Miller
Monday, Oct 19, 20 @ 11:05 am
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This is really short sighted by the IML and these cities, plus it’s a bad legal decision.
They amended the statute in the same manner as Columbus Day and other state holidays. If that’s ambiguous, why haven’t these municipalities fought those dates too? Voting lines across the state are long, and may be long on election day.
Comment by stooopid Monday, Oct 19, 20 @ 11:11 am
Every municipality, via a Board Action, has the option of voluntarily deciding to close on Election day.
Comment by Donnie Elgin Monday, Oct 19, 20 @ 11:20 am
Truly amazing that a clear and unambiguous sentence is twisted into ridiculous nonsense. Scalia would be proud.
Comment by Precinct Captain Monday, Oct 19, 20 @ 11:22 am
Properly drafting legislation matters.
For this issue, the act only amended the school code (105 ILCS 5/24-2 Holidays), the State Universities Civil Service Act (110 ILCS 70/45a), and the Election Code (10 ILCS 5/2B-10).
To IML’s point, the municipal code was not amended to clarify this state holiday. Yet the drafters of the legislation saw fit to amend school code and university civil service code. They should have amended municipal, county, etc to clarify the legislative intent.
Additionally, as pointed out in the judge’s ruling, legislative intent was discussed during debate and the House sponsor of the legislation stated “General Election Day is already a holiday for state offices and employees so this would extend it to schools and the university civil service.” No mention of municipalities or other local governments to clarify legislative intent.
Agree or disagree that this should be a holiday for all government, but the sponsors of the legislation did not draft it that way.
IMO, they could have been better off just using the “all government offices” language just in the Election Code and leaving it it at that, without the school/universities language.
Comment by Inverted Pyramid Monday, Oct 19, 20 @ 11:42 am
== Properly drafting legislation matters.
For this issue, the act only amended the school code (105 ILCS 5/24-2 Holidays), the State Universities Civil Service Act (110 ILCS 70/45a), and the Election Code (10 ILCS 5/2B-10).==
That is exactly how to draft a state holiday. One time state holidays are included in those 3 articles. You have to include it in schools and universities because under the Illinois Constitution those are not units of local government. The belt and suspenders way to do it is Election Code and those 2 articles.
Comment by stooopid Monday, Oct 19, 20 @ 12:35 pm
Between early voting and absentee/mail-in voting, why the heck do government workers need an additional 8 hours of off-time to cast a ballot? If there’s a justification (which I cannot imagine), why only apply this to government workers? Another holiday is just more overtime costs to local governments for essential services, whether it is fire/EMS, police, sanitation, etc.
Comment by Shemp Monday, Oct 19, 20 @ 1:00 pm
== Between early voting and absentee/mail-in voting, why the heck do government workers need an additional 8 hours of off-time to cast a ballot? If there’s a justification (which I cannot imagine), why only apply this to government workers? ==
Many government offices are used as polling places on Election Day. the goal is to reduce the number of non-voters in a building and also give those employees a chance to serve as poll workers if they are healthy.
Comment by stooopid Monday, Oct 19, 20 @ 1:38 pm
I know this memory isn’t relevant now. But back when AFSCME was having the huge fight for a new contract in 2012-13, wasn’t the Quinn administration among other things pushing for at least the elimination of 2 paid state holidays? Election Day being one of those (the other may have been Columbus Day). Despite government buildings being used as polling places.
Comment by Chatham Resident Monday, Oct 19, 20 @ 7:11 pm
With early voting in areas booming you’d think that if the law was about safety that those government building that are used as polling locations (early or day-of) would be closed. We’ve had over 900 people come through our doors here and to have the 3rd off because of health concerns makes little sense.
Comment by Township Official Tuesday, Oct 20, 20 @ 9:43 am