* Jerry Nowicki at Capitol News Illinois…

With the first year of the 102nd General Assembly mostly wrapped up, lawmakers as of Friday had officially passed 664 bills through both houses for eventual consideration by the governor.

Gov. JB Pritzker had signed 17 of them as of Friday, including the Thursday signing of the state’s operating budget and a bill making several changes to the state election code.

Charlie Wheeler, an emeritus professor at the University of Illinois Springfield who covered the Illinois General Assembly for the Chicago Sun-Times for more than two decades, said he was struck by the “progressive nature” of the bills passed by the General Assembly this year.

“The voting legislation, for example, you look at what other states are doing and then you look at what we did, that was kind of an example” of the strongly Democratic legislation that passed this year, Wheeler said.

The total so far is 317 Senate bills and 347 House bills.

* Related…

* Illinois Primary Election Moved to June 2022 After Pritzker Signs Voting Bill: The measure also requires election authorities to make voting by mail - which increased exponentially during the 2020 election cycle due to the pandemic - a more convenient option by creating a permanent vote-by-mail list to which voters can request to be added so that they will receive their ballot by mail in each election, rather than having to apply to vote by mail every time.

* Pritzker signs election package that moves 2022 primary to June, makes fixtures of curbside and mail-in voting: In addition, due to a previous hacking of the Illinois State Board of Elections, the law requires the state’s 108 election authorities — primarily county clerks and boards of election — to conduct monthly vulnerability risk scanning.

* Pritzker signs law that will make alderman name more inclusive

* Lawmakers Approve Proposal To Allow Sex Workers To Expunge Past Felony Prostitution Convictions: Back in 2013, Illinois reduced a prostitution conviction down to a Class A misdemeanor. Despite no longer being considered a felony offense, a conviction can still carry a maximum fine of $2500 and up to nearly a year in jail.

* Bill allows Illinoisans to keep unemployment overpayments

* Here are 5 things to know about how a FOID card bill would change Illinois law