1964 Illinois House of Representatives election

Prior to the 1960s, Illinois had only redistricted its House of Representatives once since 1901. While the Constitution of Illinois stated that the legislature was required to redistrict the state, it did not provide any method of enforcement. Population shifts in the state had resulted in Chicago having a higher percentage of the state's population, and downstate legislators did not want their region of the state to lose influence. Therefore, starting in the cycle after the 1910 United States census, legislators chose not to redistrict the state, with courts continuing to allow this practice.[1]^{: 291–292} A constitutional convention, approved by voters in 1918, aimed to deal with the issue,[2]^: 443 but voters rejected its proposed constitution in 1922.[1]^{: 291–292} The 1901 legislative map had 51 districts, with 19 located in Cook County.[1]^: 291[lower-alpha 2]

As the population of Chicago and Cook County grew, the level of malapportionment continued to increase. In the 1930 United States census, Cook County contained a majority of the state's population, but it continued to contain only 37.3% of the state's legislative districts.[1]^: 294 Throughout the 1920s and 1930s, residents of the Chicago area, most notably John B. Fergus and John W. Keogh, argued before both state and federal courts in unsuccessful attempts to force redistricting.[1]^{: 292–294} In the 1930s, there were various efforts supported by governors Louis L. Emmerson and Henry Horner to allow Cook County proportional representation in one legislative chamber, but limit its representation in the other, but these proposals died due to strong bipartisan opposition from downstate politicians.[1]^: 295

Due to increasing public pressure over malapportionment, in 1953, newly-elected Republican governor William Stratton viewed redistricting a priority. Through a number of compromises, he managed to convince the legislature to pass a constitutional amendment to establish new redistricting procedures. The amendment split the state into three permanent divisions: Chicago, suburban Cook County, and downstate. There were 58 Senate districts, of which 18 were assigned to Chicago, 6 to suburban Cook County, and 34 to downstate. The amendment did not contain any provision for reapportioning the Senate, with the intent of keeping the chamber permanently controlled by downstate. However, the House of Representatives would have 59 districts that would be regularly reapportioned by population. Initially, 23 would be assigned to Chicago, 7 to suburban Cook County, and 29 to downstate.[1]^{: 296–297} To ensure regular reapportionment, the constitution contained two separate procedures for if the legislature failed to redistrict. First, redistricting would be done by a ten-member commission, with five members appointed from each political party by the governor. If that commission failed to create districts after four months, an at-large election would be held.[1]^: 297

Opposition to the amendment was disorganized, while supporters included many state politicians and newspapers. The new redistricting process was approved by voters in a 1954 referendum with about 80% of the vote.[1]^{: 297–298} Following the passage of the amendment, new districts were drawn in 1955. At this time, both chambers were Republican-controlled, as was the governorship, leading to a relatively non-controversial redistricting cycle. Each chamber created their own map, and passed the proposed map of the other chamber, with the maps being signed by Stratton. The map used for the House of Representatives map was fairly apportioned, while the Senate's map still retained significant malapportionment. Overall, though, the maps were considered a significant improvement.[1]^: 298

Following the 1962 elections, Republicans controlled the Illinois House of Representatives and the Illinois Senate, though they only had a one-seat majority in the House. The governor of Illinois was Democrat Otto Kerner Jr., resulting in a divided government. Redistricting for the Illinois House of Representatives was required to take place before the 1964 elections.[3][4]^: 380 In data from the 1960 census, the state's population had shifted towards suburbs of Chicago, particularly in Cook County, Lake County, and DuPage County. Using population-based apportionment, two districts would be shifted from Chicago to the suburbs, and two more from southern Illinois to northeastern Illinois.[1]^: 298 On April 23, Republicans in the legislature introduced a plan to that effect. Democrats responded on the same day with a plan to instead have districts that would cross include parts of both Chicago and its suburbs, allowing the city to have control of 23 districts, arguing that this was fair given Chicago's under-representation in the Senate.[1]^: 299

Democrats received no Republican support for their redistricting plan, while Republicans could not pass theirs with any defections from theirs given their narrow majority. However, some southern Illinois lawmakers refused to support the initial Republican plan, given its removal of two districts from southern Illinois. Republicans created a compromise plan that would only remove one district from southern Illinois, at the expense of a district in Lake County.[1]^: 299 However, this bill was vetoed by Kerner on July 1, as he deemed it unfair.[1]^: 299[3] Kerner had previously promised to veto any partisan redistricting plan, and his veto message referred to the deliberate under-representation of Republican areas (which occurred as a result of the compromises made to appease downstate lawmakers).[1]^: 299 Kerner's veto was challenged at the Supreme Court of Illinois, where it was upheld. The failure of the legislature to redistrict caused the responsibility to fall to the backup commission.[1]^: 299

A special commission was also unsuccessful in agreeing on maps.[3]

On January 4, 1964, Supreme Court of Illinois ruled that an at-large election had to take place, as the legislature had not been able to redistrict the state. The court rejected an argument brought by Republican state representative Fred Branson, who argued that districts from 1955 could be used. The court also rejected an argument brought by Chicago lawyer Gus Giannis that if elections to the House were required to be held at-large, elections to the State Senate should also be held at-large.[5]

Following the court's decision, Kerner called a special session of the legislature on January 6 to set up procedures for the at-large election.[6]

A sample ballot for the election from Lake County.

There were multiple attempts to run a "Third Slate" of candidates. The Better Government Association of Chicago, along with some downstate politicians, presented a "blue ribbon" slate of candidates. Republicans nominated 118 candidates at their convention, including some of the blue ribbon candidates. Democrats followed in nominating 118 candidates at their convention. With both parties putting up what were deemed to be acceptable slates of candidates, and Republicans choosing to not renominate some controversial "West Side bloc" legislators, this Third Slate effort disbanded.[7][8]

Another attempt to put a Third Slate on the ballot was backed by various civil rights groups and labor unions, including the United Auto Workers.[9] Their planned platform focused on election reform and civil rights. The Third Slate intended on nominating 59 candidates, allowing a voter to straight-ticket vote for the slate as well as one of the two major parties.[10] However, this Third Slate failed to make the ballot, with the state's election board ruling on August 21 that they had failed to gather enough signatures.[11]

Popular figures were picked to run at the top of each party's ticket. Democrats nominated Adlai Stevenson III, the son of Adlai Stevenson II, a popular former governor in the state, and John A. Kennedy, a businessman who had a similar name but no relation to president John F. Kennedy, who had been murdered the previous year. Republicans led their ticket with Earl D. Eisenhower, the brother of popular former president Dwight D. Eisenhower.[8]

The ballot for the State House election was separate from the ballot for other concurrent elections. Voters were allowed to cast up to 177 votes, with a straight-ticket voting option available to vote for all 118 candidates of a party's slate. Voters who voted straight-ticket could also vote for up to 59 candidates from the other party. Both parties recommended utilizing straight-ticket voting.[12] The ballot was 33 inches long and was often referred to as the "bedsheet ballot".[8]

There were four ballots given to voters in 1964: a white ballot, containing most of the typical races (such as for president and governor); a green ballot, voting on the retention elections for various judges; a blue ballot, containing two constitutional amendments to be voted on; and the orange ballot, solely reserved for the House of Representatives election. Before the election, the sheer number of ballots to be voted on led to predictions of a high number of undervotes in the House of Representatives election, but post-election analysis revealed that this did not take place.[1]^: 303

Both parties encouraged a straight-ticket vote. Republicans explicitly discouraged voting for any Democratic candidates, arguing that voting for Democrats would cause the legislature to become controlled by Richard J. Daley, the mayor of Chicago. Democrats argued that a straight-ticket vote would "ensure representation from every district in Illinois".[1]^: 303 Individual candidates for the legislature generally avoided campaigning across the state, instead only campaigning around their home region, if at all.[8][1]^: 303

Given the unique electoral system allowing voters to vote for candidates of both parties, some newspapers made bipartisan endorsements of candidates. The Southern Illinoisan endorsed 48 Democrats and 48 Republicans after sending a questionnaire to all candidates in the election, suggesting voters to vote straight-ticket and for all of the newspaper's endorsed candidates of the opposing party.[7] Likewise, the Daily Herald, a newspaper serving the suburbs of Chicago, endorsed seven candidates (four Republicans and three Democrats) who they believed had a good understanding of suburban issues.[13]