Chapter 4 : Illinois ’ Election Ecosystem from Illegalities to Inconsistencies

WHEN IT ADOPTED its current state constitution in 1970, Illinois transferred responsibility over its elections from the secretary of state to a newly created state board of elections.1 The secretary of state at the time, Paul Powell, was a colorful figure in state politics with a less than sterling reputation.2 Illinois of course has a storied history of political corruption, which at least in previous eras has sometimes been accepted as a cost of doing business there.3 But by taking election administration out of the hands of a powerful central figure, the revised constitution injected two new characteristics into the Illinois election system. First, in doing away with the secretary of state’s role as Illinois’ chief election officer, the constitution diffused the real power over elections through a patchwork system of county clerks and municipal elections boards, and left the new state board of elections comparatively weak. The result was a highly decentralized system. Second, the absence of a powerful central authority opened the door to inconsistent procedures across jurisdictions, a problem some Illinois election administrators complain about today.