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IL State House At-Large

RACE DETAILS

Parents

> United States > Illinois > IL State House > IL State House At-Large

Office

State House

Type

General Election

Filing Deadline

January 01, 1964 - 12:00pm

Polls Open

November 03, 1964 - 06:00am

Polls Close

November 03, 1964 - 11:00pm

Term Start

January 01, 1965 - 12:00am

Term End

January 01, 1967 - 12:00am

Contributor

Last Modified

ev December 10, 2009 02:26pm

Data Sources

Official Vote, 1964 Illinois Secretary of State P. 49-136

Description

The Illinois legislature adopted a reapportionment amendment in the 1950s that required the state’s legislative districts to be redrawn every ten years. The law stated that if an agreement to redraw the districts could not be reached, then all of Illinois’ 177 members (at that time) of the House of Representatives would have to be elected at-large. The failure of the Legislature to re-draw the districts in 1963 resulted in the strange election of November 1964, where all of the state’s voters were handed a three-foot-long, orange-colored paper ballot listing all of the candidates for the 177 House seats. The penalty provision that caused this unprecedented election has been removed from the books, but the lesson apparently has not been learned – the Illinois General Assembly has only been able to redraw legislative districts once in more than a century (1965). After handing the matter over to the Legislative Redistricting Commission, they also have only accomplished the task once, in 1971.

PRIMARY/OTHER SCHEDULE

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