(b) A person convicted of a felony, or otherwise under sentence in a correctional institution or jail, shall lose the right to vote, which right shall be restored upon completion of his sentence.

Any laws or regulations that operate to favor one party or parties, by definition, deprive citizens that are not members of those parties of the equal protection of the laws. Any law or regulation that favors or hinders an individual to run for elected office based on political affiliation or non-affiliation is prohibited.

(b) Any candidate who meets the criteria for being listed as a candidate for election for office in a general election shall be listed on the ballot for the general election. A candidate may elect to drop out of an election no later than 30 days prior to the date of the general election.

(c) Political parties, at their own expense, may conduct primaries or caucuses to determine which candidate is the designated candidate for the party in an election for elected office. Parties may restrict such designation to only one candidate but are not required to do so.

(d) No later than 60 days prior to an election, the political party will certify to the election officials responsible for the election in question which candidate or candidates are designated to represent the party in the general election. Those candidates will have a designation after their name on the ballot indicating their partisan affiliation.

(e) No candidate may be a designated candidate of multiple political parties.

(f) Any candidate not designated by a political party as that parties’ candidate shall be listed as an independent on the general election ballot.

(g) In the case of more than 2 candidates running for the same office, any candidate receiving a majority vote shall be certified the winner of the election. If no candidate receives a majority vote, the top 2 vote recipients shall compete in a run-off election 21 days after the general election. The highest vote recipient in the run-off election shall be certified the winner in the run-off election. In the case of only one or two candidates running for the same office, the highest vote recipient shall be certified the winner of the election.

(h) In races where more than one seat for the same office is open (i.e. multi-member districts, school boards, etc), the highest vote recipients shall be certified as the winners of the elections. There shall be no run-off elections in these races.

(i) “Slating” of candidates by political parties is prohibited.

(b) For statewide officials, a recall petition must be signed by 10% of the number of voters for that official in the last election. Additionally, the petition must contain signatures of 10% of the voters for that office in the election in a given county for 10 different counties in the state.

(c) For officials not elected state-wide, the number of signatures must amount to 10% of the number of voters for that official in the last general election from voters within the jurisdiction of that office.

(d) Any interested voter may submit an affidavit stating they intend to circulate petitions for recall of a particular official and the reason for the recall. Such affidavit shall be filed with the State Board of Elections and the individual has no more than 90 days to circulate petitions and gather the required amount of signatures.

(e) Signatures and petitions may be challenged as provided by law, however, the reason given for recalling an official shall not be subject to adjudication.

(f) No later than 90 days after receiving the required number of signatures, the Secretary of State shall schedule a special election for the recall of the official in question. Where possible and reasonable, the Secretary of State shall schedule such a recall election simultaneously with another scheduled primary or general election.

(g) The question of recalling a particular elected official shall appear in plain language with the given reason stated in the recall petitions. Upon a majority vote, the official shall be immediately removed from office.

(h) The method for replacing a successfully recalled official shall be provided by law.

(b) Every two years one Representative shall be elected from each Representative District for a term of two years.

(c) To be eligible to serve as a member of the General Assembly, a person must be a United States citizen, at least 21 years old, and for the two years preceding his election or appointment a resident of the district which he is to represent. In the general election following a redistricting, a candidate for the General Assembly may be elected from any district which contains a part of the district in which he resided at the time of the redistricting and reelected if a resident of the new district he represents for 18 months prior to reelection.

(d) Within thirty days after a vacancy occurs, it shall be filled by appointment as provided by law. If the vacancy is in a Senatorial office with more than twenty-eight months remaining in the term, the appointed Senator shall serve until the next general election, at which time a Senator shall be elected to serve for the remainder of the term. If the vacancy is in a Representative office or in any other Senatorial office, the appointment shall be for the remainder of the term. An appointee to fill a vacancy shall be a member of the same political party as the person he succeeds.

(e) No member of the General Assembly shall receive compensation as a public officer or employee from any other governmental entity for time during which he is in attendance as a member of the General Assembly.

(f) No member of the General Assembly during the term for which he was elected or appointed shall be appointed to a public office which shall have been created or the compensation for which shall have been increased by the General Assembly during that term.

(b) On August 1st, in the year following each Federal decennial census year, the State Board of Elections shall redistrict the Legislative Districts, Representative Districts and the United States Congressional Districts by using a computer program or other automated system. Legislative and Representative Districts shall be drawn independent of each other. The practice of containing two
Representative Districts inside the same Legislative District is banned.

(c) The following factors shall be taken into consideration in drawing Legislative, Representative and United States Congressional Districts in the following order or priority: population equality, contiguity, unity of counties and cities, and compactness. The following factors shall be explicitly prohibited from being used in drawing legislative and representative districts: voting patterns, party affiliation of voters, party of incumbent or current office-holder, and campaign contributions of voters.

(d) One year prior to any redistricting, the State Board of Elections shall publish the source code of the computer program or automated method that will be used for the redistricting. If no open-source option is available for the task, the source code shall be audited by no less than two independent auditing firms capable of the task to ensure the program complies with the requirements of this section. The results of the audit shall be made public one-year prior to any redistricting.

(e) After August 1st, no less than three public hearings shall be held in which public input may be given on the proposed maps.

(f) By October 1st, the General Assembly shall vote on the proposed maps. The maps will become binding unless two-thirds of each chamber votes against them by record vote. Should the General Assembly vote down the generated maps, the State Board of Elections shall create new computer-generated maps by December 1st. At least three more public hearings shall be held to discuss the new maps and by February 1st of the following year the General Assembly shall vote on the new maps.

(g) If, by two-thirds votes in both chambers, the General Assembly strikes down the second computer-generated maps, the State Board of Elections shall generate a new set of maps by April 1st. The third set of computer-generates maps shall then become law without any vote in the General Assembly.

(h) If any map is declared unconstitutional or in violation of the federal Voting Rights Act, the State Board of Elections shall generate new computer-generated maps.

(b) The Governor may convene the General Assembly or the Senate alone in special session by a proclamation stating the purpose of the session; and only business encompassed by such purpose, together with any impeachments or confirmation of appointments shall be transacted. Special sessions of the General Assembly may also be convened by joint proclamation of the presiding officers of both houses, issued as provided by law.

(c) Sessions of each house of the General Assembly and meetings of committees, joint committees and legislative commissions shall be open to the public. Sessions and committee meetings of a house may be closed to the public if two-thirds of the members elected to that house determine that the public interest so requires; and meetings of joint committees and legislative commissions may be so closed if two-thirds of the members elected to each house so determine.

(b) On the first day of the January session of the General Assembly in odd-numbered years, the Secretary of State shall convene the House of Representatives to elect from its membership a Speaker of the House of Representatives as presiding officer, and the Governor shall convene the Senate to elect from its membership a President of the Senate as presiding officer.

(c) For purposes of powers of appointment conferred by this Constitution, the Minority Leader of either house is a member of the numerically strongest political party other than the party to which the Speaker or the President belongs, as the case may be.

(d) Each house shall determine the rules of its proceedings, judge the elections, returns and qualifications of its members and choose its officers. No member shall be expelled by either house, except by a vote of two-thirds of the members elected to that house. A member may be expelled only once for the same offense. Each house may punish by imprisonment any person, not a member, guilty of disrespect to the house by disorderly or contemptuous behavior in its presence. Imprisonment shall not extend beyond twenty-four hours at one time unless the person persists in disorderly or contemptuous behavior.

(e) No member may serve in the same leadership position in a chamber for more than one legislative session. No member may serve in a chamber-wide leadership or officer role and serve on the rules committee of the chamber during the same session. No member may serve in a chamber-wide leadership or officer role or as a chairman or vice-chairman of any standing committee and be the head of their party’s caucus or have any role in the party’s financing of campaigns for legislative offices.

(b) Each house shall keep a journal of its proceedings and a transcript of its debates. The journal shall be published and the transcript shall be available to the public.

(c) Either house or any committee thereof as provided by law may compel by subpoena the attendance and testimony of witnesses and the production of books, records and papers.

(b) The General Assembly shall enact laws only by bill. Bills may originate in either house, but may be amended or rejected by the other. Bills may be amended but must be substantially similar to the bill as it was introduced. The practice of “shell bills” is banned. Amendments to bills introduced as technical changes to existing law are prohibited.

(c) No bill shall become a law without the concurrence of a majority of the members elected to each house. Final passage of a bill shall be by record vote. In the Senate at the request of two members, and in the House at the request of five members, a record vote may be taken on any other occasion. A record vote is a vote by yeas and nays entered on the journal. Upon motion of any legislator joined by one-fourth of a chamber, a bill shall be called to the floor for a vote independent of committee action or desires of the chamber leadership. Such a bill shall have its final vote within 7 calendar days and the vote shall be by record vote.

(d) No bill shall become law unless before the final vote it has been available to the public in full for at least 7 calendar days during which time no amendments are allowed.

(e) A bill shall be read by title on three different days in each house. A bill and each amendment thereto shall be reproduced and placed on the desk of each member before final passage no earlier than 72 hours before a final vote.

Bills, except bills for appropriations and for the codification, revision or rearrangement of laws, shall be confined to one subject. Appropriation bills shall be limited to the subject of appropriations.
A bill expressly amending a law shall set forth completely the sections amended.

The Speaker of the House of Representatives and the President of the Senate shall sign each bill that passes both houses to certify that the procedural requirements for passage have been met.

(f) Any bill passed by the General Assembly that does not adhere to the requirements of this session is null and void. Any citizen of the State of Illinois shall be entitled to file suit in any court of the state of Illinois under this clause as a cause of action. Any court of the state of Illinois shall nullify any law that is found to have been passed in a way that does not follow the requirements set forth in this section.

(g) Upon motion of 1/4th of the legislators in a chamber, any bill shall be discharged from committee, read on the floor of the chamber and be presented to the legislators for an up or down vote.

(b) If the Governor does not approve the bill, he shall veto it by returning it with his objections to the house in which it originated. Any bill not so returned by the Governor within 60 calendar days after it is presented to him shall become law. If recess or adjournment of the General Assembly prevents the return of a bill, the bill and the Governor’s objections shall be filed with the Secretary of State within such 60 calendar days. The Secretary of State shall return the bill and objections to the originating house promptly upon the next meeting of the same General Assembly at which the bill can be considered.

(c) The house to which a bill is returned shall immediately enter the Governor’s objections upon its journal. If within 15 calendar days after such entry that house by a record vote of three-fifths of the members elected passes the bill, it shall be delivered immediately to the second house. If within 15 calendar days after such delivery the second house by a record vote of three-fifths of the members elected passes the bill, it shall become law.

(d) The Governor may reduce or veto any item of appropriations in a bill presented to him. Portions of a bill not reduced or vetoed shall become law. An item vetoed shall be returned to the house in which it originated and may become law in the same manner as a vetoed bill. An item reduced in amount shall be returned to the house in which it originated and may be restored to its original amount in the same manner as a vetoed bill except that the required record vote shall be a majority of the members elected to each house. If a reduced item is not so restored, it shall become law in the reduced amount.

(e) The Governor’s power of “amendatory veto” is repealed.

(b) If either house certifies that a disagreement exists between the houses as to the time for adjourning a session, the Governor may adjourn the General Assembly to a time not later than the first day of the next annual session.

No one shall be elected or appointed to serve more than eight years total in any one Executive Branch position under this Article. In applying this section, service in any existing Executive position resulting from an election or appointment prior to the effective date of this section shall not be counted.

(b) If the Governor is unable to serve because of death, conviction on impeachment, failure to qualify, resignation or other disability, the office of Governor shall be filled by the officer next in line of succession for the remainder of the term or until the disability is removed.

(c) Whenever the Governor determines that he may be seriously impeded in the exercise of his powers, he shall so notify the Secretary of State and the officer next in line of succession. The latter shall thereafter become Acting Governor with the duties and powers of Governor. When the Governor is prepared to resume office, he shall do so by notifying the Secretary of State and the Acting Governor.

(d) The General Assembly by law shall specify by whom and by what procedures the ability of the Governor to serve or to resume office may be questioned and determined. The Supreme Court shall have original and exclusive jurisdiction to review such a law and any such determination and, in the absence of such a law, shall make the determination under such rules as it may adopt.