In Illinois, the voters have a very limited ability to place legislation on the ballot — only via constitutional amendments with a rather high signature requirement (and, as is happening now with the Independent Maps initiative, significant opportunities for politicians to play hardball with amendments they oppose). Politicians, on the other hand, have free reign, especially with “advisory referendums,” and the Illinois Democrats are taking full advantage of this, with advisory referendums on such items as the minimum wage in the fall election, to try to stoke Democrat turnout.
Legislators sent the governor a proposal to put on the fall ballot an advisory question asking voters whether health insurance companies in Illinois should be required to provide birth control as part of their coverage plans. That’s already law in Illinois, prompting Republicans to claim the move by Democrats to encourage women to turn out at the polls. Quinn said he’ll sign it.
Now, I’ll be curious how this’ll play out in the fall. Will the Democrats insinuate that there’s a real threat to mandated contraception coverage? How far will they go? Are they banking on large numbers of genuinely massively uninformed voters?
Wow. Just wow.
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