Draft:1954 Illinois legislative apportionment amendment

Legislative Apportionment Amendment

Results
Choice Votes % Yes 2,085,224 79.87% No 525,502 20.13% Valid votes 2,610,726 75.56% Invalid or blank votes 844,447 24.44% Total votes 3,455,173 100.00%
Yes   >90%   80–90%   70–80%   60–70%   50–60% No   80–90%   70–80%   60–70%   50–60%

The 1954 Illinois legislative apportionment amendment was a legislatively-referred constitutional amendment in the state of Illinois voted on as part of the 1954 Illinois elections.

Campaign

The amendment, initially thought to be controversial, had a successful campaign with a broad base of support.

The campaign for the amendment was conducted in three phases. After the amendment's passage through the legislature, supporters of the amendment worked to organize campaign organizations and find institutional support. Secondly, those campaign organizations and institutional supporters ran a voter education campaign in favor of the amendment. Finally, supporters held many publicity events in the days leading up to the election.

Support

The campaign in favor of the amendment was led by the Illinois Committee for Constitutional Revision, an organization which had previously attempted to call constitutional conventions in 1947 and 1949. Though their efforts at a convention were unsuccessful, they had backed the 1950 gateway amendment, which made the process for approving future constitutional amendments easier.

Results

Legislative Apportionment Amendment
Option	Votes	% of votes on measure	% of all ballots cast
Yes	2,085,224	79.87	60.35
No	525,502	20.13	15.21
Total votes	2,610,726	100	75.56
Voter turnout	49.37%