Illinois voters overwhelmingly choose to keep current state flag

ILLINOIS (KBSI)- Illinois Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias announced Wednesday that voters overwhelmingly favor keeping the current state flag, following a five-week voting period to consider a redesign.

Of the nearly 385,000 votes received, over 165,000, or 43%, were cast for the current Illinois State flag. This design received more votes than the next five top designs combined.

The Illinois Flag Commission’s Top 10 new designs and three former flag designs, including the current one, were considered in the voting period.

The current flag has not undergone a major redesign in the past century.

The Illinois Flag Commission will prepare a report detailing its findings and recommendations to the General Assembly by April 1.

Lawmakers will then vote on whether to adopt a new flag, return to a previous iteration, or keep the current one.

Senate Bill 1818, signed into law by Governor JB Pritzker in 2023, created the commission to gauge public desire for a new flag.

The commission received 4,844 entries during the six-week submission period that closed in October.