Court Dismisses Lawsuit Challenging Validity of Constitutional Amendment Election
In a recent election contest lawsuit, an Illinois Appellate Court upheld the dismissal of a challenge to a 2022 constitutional amendment election. Weckbacher, et al. v. Watson, et al.
After a constitutional amendment was passed by Illinois voters at the 2022 general election (the Workers Rights Amendment that incorporated employee rights to collectively organize and bargain into Article I of the Illinois constitution), a group of plaintiffs sued the State Board of Elections (Board) to invalidate the election. Plaintiffs’ lawsuit argued the ballot used in the election, and approved by the Board, was illegal because it did not print the text of the constitutional amendment, was not labeled as a “Constitutional Ballot,” and was not provided to voters as a separate ballot from the “Official Ballot” containing the names of candidates for elected office. Based on these alleged ballot issues, the plaintiffs sought a judicial declaration that the ballot used for the constitutional amendment was illegal, and that the election be declared invalid, null, and void.
The Board moved to dismiss the lawsuit arguing that since plaintiffs failed to claim how any irregularities would have changed the election results or allowed a court to declare the election void, the lawsuit was deficient. The Board also argued the circuit court lacked authority over the case because plaintiffs did not follow the state law governing election contests for constitutional amendments. The circuit court ruled for the Board and dismissed the lawsuit after finding the plaintiffs’ claims were not timely and the court lacked authority over the lawsuit.
On appeal, the Appellate Court upheld the dismissal of the lawsuit. First, the Appellate Court agreed that the circuit court lacked authority over the case by noting that circuit courts in Illinois can only hear election contest cases as provided for by the Illinois Election Code. Under Illinois law, there are limited avenues for a plaintiff to challenge the results of an election. While the Election Code authorizes claims challenging the results of a constitutional amendment election because of alleged irregularities in the conduct of the election, the code does not allow claims challenging the validity of an election. As the plaintiffs’ lawsuit challenged the Board’s administrative actions in certifying the constitutional amendment ballot and did not challenge the actual results of the constitutional amendment election, the Appellate Court agreed that the circuit court lacked authority over the plaintiff’s lawsuit.
Second, the Appellate Court agreed that the plaintiffs failed to state a proper claim for declaratory relief on the validity of the constitutional amendment ballot. In this case, over a year had passed since the Board certified the constitutional amendment to the ballot and the election results were finalized. As the constitutional amendment election was over by the time plaintiffs filed their lawsuit, the Appellate Court determined there was no longer an ongoing dispute between the plaintiffs and the Board and agreed that the lawsuit failed to state a claim for declaratory relief.
Post Authored by Tyler Smith, Ancel Glink
