Illinois General Assembly - Bill Status for HB0351

Replaces everything after the enacting clause. Amends the Election Code. Creates the Task Force to Review Eligibility to Hold Public Office to review what criminal conduct precludes a person from holding public office in the State and to make recommendations as to what criminal conduct should preclude an individual from holding public office. Includes language relating to Task Force membership, administrative support by the Illinois Sentencing Policy Advisory Council, meetings, submission of a report of its findings and recommendations to the General Assembly and the Governor by May 1, 2024, and repealing the provisions on January 1, 2025. Amends the Unified Code of Corrections. Provides that, notwithstanding any other provision of law, a person convicted of a felony, bribery, perjury, or other infamous crime for an offense committed on or after the effective date of the amendatory Act and committed while he or she was serving as a public official in the State is ineligible to hold any local public office or any office created by the Constitution of the State unless the person's conviction is reversed, the person is again restored to such rights by the terms of a pardon for the offense, the person has received a restoration of rights by the Governor, or the person's rights are otherwise restored by law. Effective immediately.

Provides that 2 State Representatives shall be appointed by the Minority Leader of the House of Representatives to the Task Force (rather than one State Representative) and 2 State Senators shall be appointed by the Minority Leader of the Senate to the Task Force (rather than one State Senator). Provides that the Executive Director of the State Board of Elections shall appoint 2 individuals from the State Board of Elections to the Task Force.

Further amends the Election Code. Extends by one year the date by which the Task Force to Review Eligibility to Hold Public Office must submit its report to the General Assembly. Specifies that the provision creating the Task Force is to be repealed on January 1, 2026 (rather than January 1, 2025). Replaces on the Task Force representatives from the State Board of Elections with representatives from the Illinois Sentencing Policy Advisory Council. Provides that the State Board of Elections, rather than the Illinois Sentencing Policy Advisory Council, will provide administrative support to the Task Force. Provides that the Executive Director of the State Board of Elections, rather than the Executive Director of the Illinois Sentencing Policy Advisory Council, shall designate the day, time, and place for each meeting of the Task Force. Amends the Illinois Notary Public Act. Provides that neither a notary public nor an electronic notary public is required to keep a journal of or to otherwise record in a journal a notarial act or an electronic notarial act if that act is performed on specified electoral documents to be filed by or on behalf of a candidate for public office. Provides that this exemption from the Act's ordinarily applicable journaling requirement applies without regard to whether the notarial act is performed before, on, or after the effective date of the amendatory Act. Defines "public office". Makes a change to the effective date of Public Act 102-160. Effective immediately.

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