League of Women Voters of Illinois^®

The Democracy Project is a citizen's initiative petition drive for an amendment to the Illinois Constitution. It will require a 21-day period of public review before the General Assembly can take a final vote to pass non-emergency legislation. There is a provision for emergency legislation to move quickly but both parties must agree that it is a true emergency.

Legislators often tell their constituents that they didn't know what was in a bill they voted for, or that they didn't have time to read if before they were required to vote on it because it was 700 or 900 pages and they got it late. This kind of legislation is usually a result of a private meeting between the leaders and the governor, in the very final hours of session, to hash out what they would like to see pass. They often heap many things onto a shell bill in the last hours of session and then ask the rank and file legislators to sign it without sufficient time to fully read it. This means that three men in a room could be making the most important laws that we all live with.

By requiring a 21-day review period before a bill can move to a final vote, all legislators and the public would have 21 days to review the legislation. Newspapers would have time to publish the details of an important bill and the public would have a chance to know what is coming up. They would also have time to contact their local representatives to support or oppose the bill. This would allow the representatives that we elect locally to actually represent us. This would also restore a citizen's ability to engage in the legislative process.

This is a citizen's initiative and will require approximately 300,000 petition signatures of registered voters across the state. Citizens from across Illinois are participating in the circulation of these petitions. Organizations like the Illinois PTA and the League of Women Voters of Illinois are also participating in the project. Anyone who values their right to vote should be interested in keeping a strong democracy.

Over the past few years, people who have advocated for education funding reform have become frustrated with the process whereby the leaders can hold up a bill and keep it from being heard on the floor. This has been done by both parties in both chambers. This has kept some of our local legislators from even having a chance to support education bills they wanted to vote for in the past. With the use of shell bills and the last minute "drive-by" deals, it was obvious that important issues like education funding have little chance of being a priority with such a lock on the action by the leaders.