By Illinois Review
Earlier this week, Illinois Democratic State Sen. Celina Villanueva, Dist. 12, introduced legislation to allow “non-citizens of the United States” to register to vote in school board elections. The Democrats maintain a comfortable supermajority in the state Senate, 40-19.
The legislation was referred to the Assignments Committee where it will be reviewed – and if the committee decides to proceed with the bill, it will then be assigned to a specific committee.
The Democrats have a 4-2 majority on the Assignment Committee and the committee is chaired by Senate Majority Leader Kimberly Lightford, D.
The legislation states,
“The State Board of Education shall create a voter registration affidavit that shall be the exclusive means by which a noncitizen of the United States may register to vote in school board elections.”
Villanueva cites the Illinois Constitution, Article III, Section 1 – that school board races are considered “non-State elections” and therefore they are not subject to a “citizenship requirement.”
On Tuesday, Gov. JB Pritzker went on the attack against conservative grassroots groups and school board candidates during a press conference.
“There are organizations that are anti-LGBTQ, that are racist, that are anti-Muslim, that are supporting candidates for these local [school] boards, and they’re trying to take over at a local level and build up candidates at the local level that they can then run for the state legislature.”
Pritzker then ended his attacks by stating that,
“We are supporting candidates that are standing up for freedom.”
A quick glance at his record over the last two years – how he’s abused his executive power, forced children to wear masks in schools, shut down our economy during the pandemic – proves that he is for anything but freedom.
The school board elections will be on April 4, 2023.
