1970 Illinois elections explained

Elections were held in Illinois on Tuesday, November 3, 1970.^[1]

Primaries were held on March 17, 1970.^[1]

Additionally, on December 15, 1970, a special election was held in which Illinois voters voted in support of adopting a new proposed state constitution.

Election information

1970 was a midterm election year in the United States.

Turnout

Turnout in the primary election was 29.88%, with a total of 1,570,317 ballots cast. 819,692 Democratic and 750,625 Republican primary ballots were cast.^[1]

Turnout during the general election was 69.90%, with 3,731,006 ballots cast.^[1]

2,017,717 people cast ballots in the December 15 special election regarding the proposed new Illinois constitution.^[1]

Federal elections

United States Senate

See main article: article and 1970 United States Senate special election in Illinois.

See also: 1970 United States Senate elections. A special election was held to fill the remainder of the term of Republican Everett Dirksen, who had died in office. Republican Ralph Tyler Smith had been appointed to fill the seat after Dirksen's death, and he lost the special election to Democrat Adlai Stevenson III.

United States House

See also: 1970 United States House of Representatives elections.

All 24 Illinois seats in the United States House of Representatives were up for election in 1970.

No seats switched parties, so the party composition of Illinois' House delegation remained 12 Democrats and 12 Republicans.

State elections

Treasurer

Incumbent Treasurer Adlai Stevenson III, a Democrat, did not seek a second term, instead opting to run for United States Senate. Democrat Alan J. Dixon was elected to succeed him in office.

Since Adlai Stevenson III assumed his U.S. Senate office November 17, due to the nature of it being a special election, there was a brief vacancy in the treasurer's office before Dixon would assume office. Therefore, Governor Richard B. Ogilvie appointed Republican Charles W. Woodford to serve as treasurer from November 17 until Dixon took office on January 3.

General election

Superintendent of Public Instruction

Incumbent Superintendent of Public Instruction Ray Page, a Republican seeking a third term, was defeated by Democrat Michael Bakalis.

General election

State Senate

Seats in the Illinois Senate were up for election in 1970. While there was a 29-29 member split in the chamber after the election, Democrats flipped control of the chamber since there was a Democratic lieutenant governor (Paul Simon).

State House of Representatives

Seats in the Illinois House of Representatives were up for election in 1970. Republicans retained control of the chamber.

Trustees of University of Illinois

Elections were held to elect Trustees of University of Illinois system. This included a regularly-scheduled election of three seats, and a special election to fill a vacancy.

Regular election

The regular to fill three seats saw the election new Democratic members William D. Forsyth Jr., George W. Howard III, and Earl L. Neal.^[1]

Incumbent Republican Earl Edwin Walker (appointed in 1970) was not reelected.^[1] Incumbent Republican W. Clement Stone (appointed in 1969 to replace Harold Pogue following his death in office) lost reelection, running in the regular election instead of the special election to fill Pogue's seat.^[1] Second-term Democratic incumbent Howard W. Clement was not renominated. Also not renominated was Democrat Theodore A. Jones (who had been appointed in 1963, and thereafter reelected in 1964)^[1]

Special election

Democrat Roger B. Pogue defeated Republican educator and Illinois State Representative Frances L. Dawson in the special election to fill the remaining two years of an unexpired term. Despite losing in the popular vote, Dawson placed first in 64 counties, while Pogue placed first in 38.^[1]

Incumbent Republican W. Clement Stone (appointed in 1969 to replace Harold Pogue, whose seat this had been, after his death in office), did not run in this election, instead running in the regular election for a full term.^[1]

Turnout for the special election was 60.87%.^[1]

Judicial elections

Multiple judicial positions were up for election in 1970.^[1]

Ballot measures (November 3)

Three ballot measures (two legislatively referred constitutional amendments and one bond measure) were on the ballot on November 3. The two legislatively referred constitutional amendments proposed amendments to the existing 1870 Constitution of Illinois. In order to be placed on the ballot, legislatively referred constitutional amendments needed to be approved by two-thirds of each house of the Illinois General Assembly.^[2] In order to be approved, they required votes equal to a majority of those who voted in the 1970 elections, or two thirds of those voting specifically on the measure.

Illinois Ad Valorem Tax Prohibition Amendment

The Ad Valorem Tax Prohibition Amendment, also known as "Amendment 1", prohibited the taxation of personal property by valuation.^[3]

Illinois Ad Valorem Tax Prohibition Amendment
Option	Votes !% of votes on measure	% of all ballots cast
text align=center	Yes	text align=center	2,925,058	text align=center	87.70	text align=center	78.40%
text align=center	No	text align=center	410,333	text align=center	12.30	text align=center	11.00
text align=center	Total votes	text align=center	3,335,391	text align=center	100	text align=center	89.40
	Voter turnout	colspan=3 text align=right	62.49%

Illinois Anti-Pollution Amendment

The Illinois Anti-Pollution Amendment, also known as "Amendment 2", approved the Anti-pollution Bond Act.^[4]

Bond measures needed a vote equal to majority of the votes cast for whichever chamber of the Illinois General Assembly had the highest cumulative vote count.

Illinois Anti-Pollution Amendment
Option	Votes	% of highest legislative vote cast
text align=center	Yes	text align=center	2,291,718	text align=center
text align=center	No	text align=center	544,116	text align=center
text align=center	Total votes	text align=center	2,835,834	text align=center
	Voter turnout	colspan=2 text align=right	53.13%

Illinois Banking Act Amendment

The Illinois Banking Act Amendment, also known as "Amendment 3", enabled state chartered banks to have the same powers as national banks.^[5]

Illinois Banking Act Amendment
Option	Votes !% of votes on measure	% of all ballots cast
text align=center	Yes	text align=center	2,925,058	text align=center	87.70	text align=center	78.40
text align=center	No	text align=center	410,333	text align=center	12.30	text align=center	11.00
text align=center	Total votes	text align=center	3,335,391	text align=center	100	text align=center	78.40
	Voter turnout	colspan=3 text align=right	62.49%

Ballot measures (December 15)

A December 15 special election was held in which the proposed 1970 Constitution of Illinois itself was up for election, as were several constitutional convention referral items. The constitutional convention referral items would only take effect if the new constitution itself was approved.

The constitution and all amendments to amend it were required to be approved by at least half of all those casting ballots in the election.^[1]

2,017,717 people cast ballots.^[1]

Constitution Ratification Question

Illinois voters voted on whether or not the state would adopt the Illinois Constitution of 1970.^{[1] [6]}

Illinois Constitution Ratification Question[7]
Option	Votes	% of all ballots cast
text align=center	Yes	text align=center	1,122,425	text align=center	55.63
text align=center	No	text align=center	838,168	text align=center	41.54
text align=center	Total votes	text align=center	1,960,593	text align=center	97.17

Appoint All Judges Amendment

The Appoint All Judges Amendment was a ballot question which asked voters whether judges should be appointed by the governor from a list of nominees or elected by the people.^[8]

If voters had voted for appointment, Illinois' constitution would have contained an article outlining a Missouri Plan-syle "merit selection" system in which the governor would nominate judicial appointees that had first been recommended by judicial nominating commission. The Illinois Bar Association had endorsed a vote for appointed judges. However, the state's voters instead opted to retain direct election of judges. As a result, Illinois retained the system of judicial election that had been outlined in the previous constitution after the adoption of the 1962 Illinois Judicial Amendment^{[9] [10]}

Appoint All Judges Amendment
Option	Votes	% of all ballots cast
text align=center	Elect	text align=center	1,013,559	text align=center	50.23
text align=center	Appoint	text align=center	867,230	text align=center	42.98
text align=center	Total votes	text align=center	1,880,789	text align=center	93.21

Death Penalty Amendment

The Death Penalty Amendment proposed abolishing the death penalty in Illinois.^[11] It was defeated.^[11]

Death Penalty Amendment
Option	Votes	% of all ballots cast
text align=center	Yes	text align=center	676,302	text align=center	33.52
text align=center	No	text align=center	1,218,791	text align=center	60.41
text align=center	Total votes	text align=center	1,895,093	text align=center	93.92

State Representation Amendment

The Illinois State Representation Amendment (also known as the "Elect Legislature Question") was a ballot question which asked voters whether they wished to retain multi-member districts in the state legislature of switch to single-member districts.^[12]

State Representation Amendment
Option	Votes	% of all ballots cast
text align=center	Multi-Member	text align=center	1,031,241	text align=center	51.11
text align=center	Single-Member	text align=center	749,909	text align=center	37.17
text align=center	Total votes	text align=center	1,781,150	text align=center	88.28

Voting Age Amendment

The Voting Age Amendment proposed lowering the age of suffrage to 18.^[13] It was defeated.^[13]

Voting Age Amendment
Option	Votes	% of all ballots cast
text align=center	Yes	text align=center	869,816	text align=center	43.11
text align=center	No	text align=center	1,052,924	text align=center	52.18
text align=center	Total votes	text align=center	1,922,740	text align=center	95.29

Local elections

Local elections were held.

Notes and References

1. Web site: OFFICIAL VOTE Cast at the GENERAL ELECTION NOVEMBER 3, 1970 JUDICIAL • MEMBERS OF CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION PRIMARY AND GENERAL • PROPOSED 1970 CONSTITUTION • SPECIAL ELECTIONS • PRIMARY ELECTION GENERAL PRIMARY, MARCH, 17, 1970 . https://web.archive.org/web/20211122104829/https://www.elections.il.gov/DocDisplay.aspx?doc=Downloads/ElectionOperations/VoteTotals/Archived/1970/1970%20GE%20and%20PE.pdf . dead . November 22, 2021 . Illinois State Board of Elections . 28 June 2020 .
2. Illinois Constitution of 1870 ARTICLE XIV Section 2
3. Web site: Illinois Ad Valorem Tax Prohibition Amendment (1970) . Ballotpedia . 29 March 2020 . en.
4. Web site: Illinois Anti-Pollution Amendment (1970) . Ballotpedia . 29 March 2020 . en.
5. Web site: Illinois Banking Act Amendment (1970) . Ballotpedia . 29 March 2020 . en.
6. Book: Kopecky . Frank . Harris . Mary Sherman . Understanding the Illinois Constitution 2001 Edition . 7 . Illinois State Bar Association . https://web.archive.org/web/20080228163242/http://www.isba.org/Sections/constbook.pdf . 28 February 2008.
7. Web site: Illinois Constitution Ratification Question (December 1970) . Ballotpedia . 29 March 2020 . en.
8. Web site: Illinois State Representation Amendment (December 1970) . Ballotpedia . 29 March 2020 . en.
9. Web site: Illinois Supreme Court History: Illinois's Elected Judiciary . Administrative Office of the Illinois Courts . 22 November 2024 . en . October 27, 2020.
10. Web site: Rolewick . David F. . A Short History of the Illinois Judicial Systems . Illinois State Bar Association . 22 November 2024.
11. Web site: Illinois Death Penalty Amendment (December 1970) . Ballotpedia . 27 June 2020 . en.
12. Web site: Illinois State Representation Amendment (December 1970) . Ballotpedia . 29 March 2020 . en.
13. Web site: Illinois Voting Age Amendment (December 1970) . Ballotpedia . en.