HB0348ham001 100TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY

Rep. Barbara Flynn Currie

Filed: 3/29/2017

10000HB0348ham001 LRB100 04341 RJF 24549 a

AMENDMENT TO HOUSE BILL 348

AMENDMENT NO. ______. Amend House Bill 348 by replacing everything after the enacting clause with the following:

"Section 5. The Illinois Constitutional Amendment Act is amended by changing Section 2 as follows:

(5 ILCS 20/2) (from Ch. 1, par. 103)

Sec. 2.

(a) The General Assembly in submitting an amendment to the Constitution to the electors, or the proponents of an amendment to Article IV of the Constitution submitted by petition, shall prepare a brief explanation of such amendment, a brief argument in favor of the same, and the form in which such amendment will appear on the separate ballot as provided by Section 16-6 of the Election Code, as amended. The minority of the General Assembly, or if there is no minority, anyone designated by the General Assembly shall prepare a brief argument against such amendment. The explanation, the arguments for and against each constitutional amendment, and the form in which the amendment will appear on the ballot (with striking and underscoring) shall be filed in the Office of the Secretary of State no later than July 1 of the year in which the amendment shall appear on the ballot.

(b) In the case of an amendment to Article IV of the Constitution initiated pursuant to Section 3 of Article XIV of the Constitution, the proponents of the amendment shall prepare a brief explanation of such amendment and a brief argument in favor of the same. For purposes of this subsection (b), the proponents shall be those persons so designated at the time of the filing of the petition as provided in Section 10-8 of the Election Code. A brief argument against such amendment shall be prepared by , and the opponents shall be those members of the General Assembly opposing such amendment, or if there are none, anyone designated by the General Assembly and such opponents shall prepare a brief argument against such amendment. The proponent's explanation and argument in favor of and the opponents argument against an amendment to Article IV initiated by petition must be submitted to the Attorney General by July 1, who may rewrite them for accuracy and fairness. The Attorney General shall prepare the form in which such amendment will appear on the ballot (with striking and underscoring). The explanation, the arguments for and against each constitutional amendment, and the form in which the amendment will appear on the separate ballot (with striking and underscoring) shall be filed in the Office office of the Secretary of State no later than 30 days after the State Board of Elections has certified the with the proposed amendment.

(c) Within 30 days of receipt of the information related to the amendment, the Office of the Secretary of State shall publish the materials on a publicly accessible Internet website controlled by the Office of the Secretary of State, including an electronic version that may be downloaded. Additionally, the Office shall provide an electronic copy to the State Board of Elections and each election authority in the State.

(d) No later than one month before the general election, each election authority shall publish the information received from the Secretary of State on their Internet website and shall electronically mail the information to any registered voter who has provided the Board or the election authority with an electronic mail address.

(e) At least one month before the general next election at which the amendment appears on the ballot of members of the General Assembly, following the passage of the proposed amendment, the Secretary of State shall publish the explanation of the amendment, the arguments for and against the amendment, the form in which the amendment will appear on the ballot (with striking and underscoring), and a link to the information published on the website, in full in 8 point type, or the equivalent thereto, in at least one secular newspaper of general circulation in every county in this State in which a newspaper is published. In counties in which 2 or more newspapers are published, the Secretary of State shall cause such amendment to be published in at least 2 newspapers. In counties having a population of 500,000 or more, such amendment shall be published in not less than 6 newspapers of general circulation. After the first publication, the publication of such amendment shall be repeated once each week for 2 consecutive weeks. In selecting newspapers in which to publish such amendment the Secretary of State shall have regard solely to the circulation of such newspapers, selecting secular newspapers in every case having the largest circulation. The proposed amendment shall have a notice prefixed thereto in said publications, that at such election the proposed amendment will be submitted to the electors for adoption or rejection, and at the end of the official publication, he shall also publish the form in which the proposed amendment will appear on the separate ballot. The Secretary of State shall fix the publication fees to be paid newspapers for making such publication, but in no case shall such publication fee exceed the amount charged by such newspapers to private individuals for a like publication.

(f) The General Assembly may, by resolution, direct the Secretary of State to distribute to the electors a pamphlet containing In addition to the notice hereby required to be published, the Secretary of State shall also cause the existing form of the constitutional provision proposed to be amended, the proposed amendment (with striking and underscoring), the explanation of the same, the arguments for and against the same, and the form in which such amendment will appear on the separate ballot, to be published in pamphlet form in 8 point type or the equivalent thereto; and the Secretary of State shall mail such pamphlet to every mailing address in the State, addressed to the attention of the Postal Patron. The Secretary of State He shall also maintain a reasonable supply of such pamphlets so as to make them available to any person requesting one.

(Source: P.A. 98-463, eff. 8-16-13.)".