Should Oak Park be a Trans-Pacific Partnership-Free zone? What the heck is a Trans-Pacific Partnership-Free zone?
Oak Park voters will be asked to decide on the little-known international trade agreement when the polls open for early voting on Oct. 20. Along with deciding the next governor, state lawmakers and members of Congress, among other elected officials, voters will consider the lofty question of whether the village should disconnect itself from an international trade partnership.
Oak Parkers also will be asked whether to support federal legislation requiring universal background checks of criminal and mental health history before purchasing or transferring ownership of a firearm.
Both of these ballot issues are advisory and nonbinding, meaning they lack the force of law.
Gavin Morgan, Oak Park Township manager, explained that the advisory referenda are surprisingly easy to get on the ballot. Any registered Oak Park voter can submit an advisory referendum by collecting 15 signatures from registered Oak Park voters.
The proposed referendum language and 15 signatures must be submitted to the Township by March 1, and then the referendum is placed on the agenda of the annual Oak Park Township meeting, held on the second Tuesday of April. Morgan says if the petitioners have 15 signatures, then the referendum will make it on the ballot.
Past advisory votes have called for an end to the Iraq War, the establishment of a living wage ordinance and more information from the village on the delivery of vaccinations.
Morgan said he’s not against advisory referenda but added that “the township board would like it to be related to township business.”
He said the township board sent a letter to state lawmakers in 2011, calling for lawmakers to make it tougher to get advisory referenda on the ballot.
“Yes, it’s a low bar, but it’s higher than it used to be,” he said.
He said that before state legislators changed the law about three years ago, all you needed was 15 signatures from supporters the night of the Township Board meeting. Ballot referendum language could be written on the spot and submitted with the signatures, and the language would end up on the ballot.
Morgan said having to submit the language in advance is an improvement, but the bar is still too low.
He said the “long, complicated” referendum wording about vaccinations prompted the Township Board to advise the Illinois General Assembly to change the law.
“It had gotten out of hand because [the referenda being submitted were] completely unrelated to township business,” Morgan said.