From left to right: Rep. Patrick Windhorst, Rep. Ryan Spain, Leader Tony McCombie. 

From the city of Chicago to the farms of the central and southern region of the state, Illinois citizens expect their voices to matter and their votes to count. They also rightly expect that our elections are secure and transparent and that they can trust the results when the votes are tallied. 

State Representative Patrick Windhorst serves as the House Republican Floor Leader and as the House Minority Spokesman on the House’s Ethics & Elections Committee. Rep. Windhorst is a native of Metropolis, a community situated on the border of Kentucky and about a six-hour drive from the city of Chicago. Windhorst says Illinois government must do all it can to secure our elections. 

The Illinois Supreme Court recently upheld a lower court ruling that declared a controversial sweeping election law passed by Illinois Democrats unconstitutional. Senate Bill 2412, which House Republicans nicknamed the “Katie Stuart Protection Act,” sought to end the longstanding practice of allowing local party organizations to appoint candidates to the ballot for the general election in uncontested legislative races. The slating process requires a candidate to collect and file signed petitions by registered voters within the respective district, but Democrats tried to eliminate the slating practice altogether.

Changes to primary election fundraising, the electoral college and the state’s voter registration database are now law after Gov. JB Pritzker signed a wide-ranging bill on July 1.

The legislation, containing several unrelated election measures, passed near the end of the legislature’s spring session on a vote of 68-38 in the House and 51-3 in the Senate.

A measure loosening restrictions on political parties’ spending during primary campaigns sparked pushback from some House Republicans during debate of the bill.

Democrats threw quite a curveball in early May during the 2024 Spring Legislative Session, abruptly gutting a Senate child welfare bill and in less than 48 hours enacting legislation that changed Illinois election laws during the middle of an election cycle. The new bill changed the rules on how candidates for public office can get on the ballot for the upcoming November 2024 election.

House Republicans introduced several initiatives this year aimed at increasing election integrity in Illinois. The bills targeted the State Board of Elections to set up and maintain a system to track all mail-in ballots, required voter ID cards or another form of ID to vote, and ensured deceased individuals are removed from voter rolls.

“I would love to be in a situation where the state of Illinois, for voting, is not relying on election judges and their signature match-up expertise to make sure that we have done all we can to reduce voter fraud,” stated State Representative Ryan Spain, ranking Republican on the House Ethics & Elections Committee. “What we should be doing is what most states in our country do. Red states, blue states, swing states and the vast majority of states have a simple fix and it is voter ID. You show an ID when you go to vote.”