Peoria Standard

State Sen. Win Stoller (R-Peoria) is pushing a plan he argues is intended to give voters more of a say in the direction of their government.  

“I have filed to co-sponsor the Senate Republican’s Voter Empowerment Project,” Stoller recently posted on Facebook. “You can learn more about the legislative package of constitutional amendments designed to give Illinois voters a more active role in the state’s democratic process at the link below. https://senatorstoller.com/.../Voter-Empowerment-Project.pdf.

As part of the document, Stoller highlights four constitutional amendments, including one calling for independent redistricting to commence in 2023. Other proposed amendments include enacting a process to allow for voter-initiated constitutional amendments and voter referendums to repeal laws.

Stoller isn’t the only Republican lawmaker insisting that voters deserve better.

“The people don’t have a voice,” said Senate Minority Leader Dan McConchie (R-Hawthorn Woods). “It is only those well connected, those that are in power, those that are maintaining power over the voters.”

The final proposal in the Voter Empowerment Project would allow the recall of any elected official, including the Illinois House Speaker or Illinois Senate President.

The Galesburg Reporter reports Stoller has long blasted Democrats over their handling of map redistricting, recently deriding the passage of House Bill 3138 as a “sham redistricting process.”

He later posted on Facebook “The majority party has once again used a sham redistricting process in order to rush through new maps that will help secure their power. Unfortunately, this time Democrats chose to corrupt our judicial system with their political games. Our state’s judicial branch is meant to be an impartial and independent system above the typical partisanship that has become all too common in Springfield. Yet on the very first day of our 2022 spring session, Democrat lawmakers unnecessarily passed new sub circuit boundaries in the name of partisan gains.”

HB 3138 is designed to split the 7th Judicial Circuit — which covers the counties of Sangamon, Greene, Jersey, Macoupin, Morgan and Scott — into seven subcircuits, with each subcircuit including judges who would have to live in those subcircuits and be elected only by voters from the area. The legislation wouldn’t affect the terms of any current judges or any retention votes, which are conducted every six years after judges are first elected.