Progress Illinois

Undeterred by a Cook County judge's ruling that the constitutional convention question will appear on the Illinois ballot as drafted -- mistakes and all -- Con-Con proponents have appealed to the state's highest court to intervene on behalf of voters.

With only three weeks until Election Day, Lt. Gov. Pat Quinn and the Chicago Bar Association (CBA) are petitioning both the Illinois Supreme Court and Appellate Court to reverse Cook County Judge Nathaniel Howse Jr.'s recent decision on the matter.  Howse found the Con-Con ballot language to be both "misleading and false," but decided it was too late to do anything but distribute flyers at the polling places with better wording, as well as a warning to disregard the language on the ballot.

The plaintiffs would rather see a separate paper ballot issued for the Con-Con question.  This idea, however, has drawn opposition from state election authorities who say that dealing with a hand-count of upwards of 8 million ballots would be a nightmare.

An appellate court hearing on the motions is scheduled for Wednesday. It's not clear when, or if, the Supreme Court will respond to a separate motion filed last Thursday requesting that the court take up the case.

"We're attempting to leap-frog the appellate court because of time," said attorney and conservative activist Bruno Behrend, a member of the plaintiffs' legal team. "It's about time and it's about proper remedy."

When he ruled, Howse acknowledged that his solution was "not perfect," but asserted that the flyer would give voters "the chance to cast their ballots effectively."

The plaintiffs argue that this plan -- in which voters are instructed to first read the question as it should have been drafted and then ignore the flawed question as they actually vote -- is ridiculous.

"The logistics don't outweigh voters' rights to an accurate ballot," Behrend said.