The Illinois Flag Commission was tasked by Illinois Senate Bill 1818 (SB1818) to "gauge the public desire for a new flag," and they've been doing their work to get it done.

Now, after almost 5,000 flag design ideas were submitted, the hard work of narrowing down those 5,000 designs into a top-ten has been completed, and we've got ten finalists that you, an Illinois resident, can vote on. Well, actually, anyone from anywhere on Earth can vote online up until the cutoff date of February 14th.

Why didn't they go with Abraham Lincoln's birthday (February 12th) instead? I mean, we kind of use him for a lot of things in this state.  Asking for a friend.

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Who wouldn't love to see a Winkin' Lincoln on the flag? (Getty Images)
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Hmmm. Let me ponder that. (Getty Images)
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You Probably Thought Designing And Implementing A Flag Was Easy...

And you may be right, up until the government gets involved with rules, regulations, restrictions. For the longest time our state's flag looked very much like it does now, except there was no "Illinois" to be found on it.

According to the Illinois Flag Commission, that changed in 1969 after Chief Petty Officer Bruce McDaniel of Waverly, serving in Vietnam at the time, wrote to state Rep. Jack Walker expressing his concerns that unlike other state flags in his mess hall, the Illinois state flag could not be identified because it did not carry the state’s name.

New legislation corrected the problem of a lack of state identification, but a flag commission wanted these recommendations used before flying the new flag:

  • The flag of the state of Illinois shall be made up of the emblem portion of the seal of the state rendered in color on a white field with the word “Illinois” in blue below the emblem.
  • The emblem portion and the word “Illinois” shall constitute approximately 80 percent of the vertical length of the flag.
  • The word “Illinois” shall be in height approximately one-twelfth the diameter of the emblem.
  • The flag shall be composed of eight colors, identified in the Standard Color Card of America as: Old Glory Red, No. 70180; Old Glory Blue, No. 70075; Midnight Black, No. 70090; Nickel Grey, No. 70152; Hunter Green, No. 70069; and Brown, No. 70119.
  • The word “Illinois” shall be horizontal, in a straight line and in serif lettering comparable to Craw Clarendon Modern typeface.

Which gave us this:

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Here's How To Vote On Illinois' New (Or Old) Flag, And What Your Vote Really Means

To vote on the designs being considered for a possible change to the Illinois state flag, just go to the Illinois Flag Commission website. Just a bit down the page, you'll see the "Vote" button.

You can vote more than once, because this is Illinois after all. However, you can only vote one time in a 24-hour period. After voting ends on February 14th, the results will be shared with Illinois lawmakers by April 1st.

As to what your vote actually means, think of it as an advisory referendum. Advisory referendums are basically a poll taken at the ballot box. Lawmakers can see what the voters think, but they're not bound to do what the public would prefer.

Regardless of the flag design vote, Illinois lawmakers will have the final say on whether we change things up or stay with the current state flag.

The Definitive List of The Oddest, Strangest and Downright Filthy Town Names In Every State

We combed through list after list of the oddest, strangest and somewhat naughty-sounding town names in every state. From Smut Eye to Ding Dong, you can learn unbelievable facts about each of these towns below.

Gallery Credit: Rob Carroll

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