Petition Forms by Jurisdiction
An election jurisdiction is any political subdivision of the state from which officials are elected.
In Illinois every county is an election jurisdiction, PLUS each of these 8 cities: Aurora, Bloomington, Chicago, Danville, East St. Louis, Galesburg, Peoria, and Rockford. There a total of 11 counties that have separate election jurisdictions.
People living in these 8 cities MUST sign one petition and those living outside the city in the same county MUST sign a separate petition. For example, Peoria city residents will sign one petition and their friends who live outside the city in Peoria County will sign a different petition. Both groups of residents will be from Peoria County, but their signatures will be processed separately by jurisdiction.
Many signatures were thrown out in the last drive because voters signed the form for their county when they should have signed the form for their city, which is a different jurisdiction. Many were also discarded because signatures from two different counties appeared on the same petition. It is the responsibility of the petition collector to see that the registered voter signs the correct petiton.
If you're collecting in any of these 8 cities, we recommend that you print the form for that Municipality before you start out for the day.
Using petitions marked by jurisdiction will also alert voters when they are signing the wrong petition. For this reason it will be helpful to use petitions marked by the jurisdiction below whenever possible. If you plan to collect signatures in a given city that is not a separate jurisdiction, you can fill in the city on the Word document and print them ahead of time. This will save time, especially at busy locations.
