THE NEWLY constituted State Board of Elections was suddenly in the midst of an unprecedented credibility test. On August 21 Gov. James R. Thompson had turned in the petitions to put his nonbinding referendum on the ballot: "Shall legislation be enacted and the Illinois Constitution be amended to impose ceilings on taxes and spending by the state of Illinois, units of local goverment and school districts?" The proposition seemed designed to get Thompson on the tax-revolt bandwagon without committing him to any rash actions. And to get the proposition on the ballot, Thompson campaigners had collected 607,000 signatures in the amazingly short time of less than five weeks. But on August 22 Rep. Dave Robinson, Springfield's maverick Democrat, and a group of his volunteers began checking over the Thompson petitions. They apparently hoped a discovery of bogus signatures would arouse support for Robinson's bill to prohibit paying circulators of petitions (a practice that is not illegal under current election law and has been used by many politicians besides Gov. Thompson). Discovering that some petitions had been falsely notarized, Robinson decided to go whole hog and challenge the right of the "Thompson Proposition" to be on the ballot November 7. Ironically, Robinson's own petitions to get on the primary ballot later turned out to have many bad signatures on them — though not enough, Robinson said, to disqualify him or compare with "the systematic error" of the Thompson petitions. Joining Robinson in the challenge were the Independent Voters of Illinois and the Illinois Education Association. Volunteers from the watchdog Better Government Association and the reform-minded Coalition for Political Honesty (CPH) also helped check petitions as did Democrats from Sangamon. Lake, Kane and Winnebago counties where questionable petitions had originated. It was now up to the Board of Elections to decide a question of public policy in the midst of a gubernatorial campaign. Along with the political pressure, there was the very real presence of all the people who had signed the petitions in good faith. In spite of warnings from former Gov. Richard B. Ogilvie and others that it won't work, Illinois voters seem to like the idea of putting a legal lid on taxes. Besides the 607,000 signatures that Thompson's proposition had received, another nonbinding tax-lid proposition sponsored by the low-budget CPH had failed to get on the ballot but had over 500,000 signatures. The initial ground rules for Robinson's challenge were set in an out-of-court settlement August 24. Under the compromise, the Board of Elections would remain open until midnight Thursday and Friday, August 24 and 25, but the August 26 deadline, set by law, would not be extended. The burden of proof was on the challengers. With nonbinding propositions, as with petitions for candidates, the challenger must file specific charges with the State Board of Elections and do so within five days — an incredibly short period to check more than a half-million signatures. The extra hours that the board offices stayed open allowed Robinson, supported by the IVI and the IEA, to make some fast and frantic signature checks and file a formal challenge on August 26 to some 26,000 signatures — enough to take the proposition off the ballot. The board's hands-off stance was a minor area of disagreement. But the five-day time limit is an issue in the appeal of the Board's decision to the Sangamon County Circuit Court. The board's first action came August 30 when it unanimously rejected a proposal by Thompson's attorneys to dismiss all signature challenges without further proceedings. It also voted to subpoena six persons who had notarized challenged petitions, and thus opened the way for public testimony. Two other rulings are being contested in Robinson's court appeal. One is the unanimous vote to reject the challengers' contention that the proposition should be thrown off the ballot because it is ambiguous and deals with too many issues. The other is the unanimous decision to refuse to allow the addition of another 7,000 signatures to those already being challenged. This, the board said, would be changing the deadline specified by the law. On September 1 Vicki Sands, executive secretary to Lt. Gov. Dave O'Neal and one of the subpoenaed notaries, made the surprise announcement that she would take the Fifth Amendment if called to testify before the board. Up to that point challengers had failed to come up with evidence that would justify a "binder check" of voter registration records to prove that petition circulators were not registered voters. When Sands didn't show up, the board immediately voted 6-2 to make the check. It was one of the few split votes in the proceedings with Republican members John Lanigan and Phil Gilbert in the minority. Then, another suprise occurred. Trying to reach his lawyer, Gov. Thompson phoned the board during a Southern Illinois campaign swing. Board chairman John Countryman answered the phone, and Thompson requested the 7,000 petitions notarized by Sands be withdrawn. The conversation drew criticism. However, the key vote to make a binder check had already 2/ November 1978/Illinois Issues been taken. Ron Michaelson, executive director for the board, said "All the governor was trying to do was notify his attorney. The attorney wasn't there, so he asked for the chairman." Sands' signatures were not counted, even though once petitions have been submitted, they cannot be withdrawn, according to law. But attorneys for both sides agreed not to include the signatures notarized by her. And when Sands declared September 7 she was ready to testify, the board "decided by consensus" during a recess that her testimony was no longer needed. Whatever Sands had to say would be heard later by a Sangamon County grand jury investigating the petitions. The board's key vote was on the validity of more than 3,000 crucial signatures. The problem with most of them was that petition circulators did not live at the addresses shown on their voter registration cards. Was this a violation of the code's requirement that petition circulators be registered voters? The challengers' attorney, Franklin Schwerin, argued that it was, contending that without the correct address there is no way to trace whether petition circulators are registered voters. Gov. Thompson's attorney, Andrew Raucci, said such a requirement would put too great a burden on future petition sponsors. The board voted to accept the petitions. It was a split vote with Democrats Carolyn R. Chamberlain and Joshua Johnson joining the four Republicans. Explaining the decision, Michaelson said, "Just because their [the petition circulators] names might not have been filed in a binder card in the county clerk's office does not mean they were not properly registered voters." Unless further proof were presented, he said, the board was not going to throw out those petitions. He added that the Election Code is ambiguous on the subject. "It's possible that the statutes might be made more clear," Michaelson says. This board decision is also being challenged in court. About 2 a.m. September 8, minutes after their key vote, the weary board members unanimously validated the "Thompson Proposition" for the November ballot. On September 18, Robinson, supported by the IVI, filed an appeal with the Sangamon County Circuit Court which heard arguments October 6 and promised a timely ruling. Grand juries in Sangamon, Lake and Winnebago counties are also looking into possible violations of election law. Meanwhile, at Gov. Thompson's request, Tyrone Fahner, director of the Department of Law Enforcement, is investigating the petition drive. Democrats were immediately critical of this in-house investigation. And the Board of Elections could get caught in the crossfire again. It has the original petitions and must decide which investigators to send them to and when. Patrick Quinn of the Coalition for Political Honesty feels that the "passive" position the board took in terms of investigating the Thompson Proposition "was the correct legal approach." But Quinn said he would like to see an automatic random sample check of 5 per cent of the signatures on any referendum petition. According to House Speaker William A. Redmond (D., Bensenville), the board did "absolutely awful." He said, "I can't believe there were any lawyers on the board." At Redmond's suggestion, the Illinois Election Laws Commission, chaired by Sen. John A. Graham (R., Barrington) and Rep. Harry Yourell (D., Oak Lawn), held hearings September 27 to consider possible changes in state laws governing referenda. The commission considered possible reduction of the number of signatures needed for an advisory referendum, changes in the time limit for petitions to be challenged, use of State Board of Elections inspectors to check petitions, and prohibition of payment to petition circulators. Possibly the most interesting topic discussed was amending the Illinois Constitution to give voters the right to initiate and pass legislation through petition, as voters did in California with Proposition 13. 22/ November 1978/Illinois Issues
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