Įach township is governed by an elected board, which consists of a 'supervisor' plus four 'trustees'. In addition, if the county board is petitioned by a majority of the township's voters, the board may change the township's name. Įach township name is chosen by 'in accordance with the express wish of the inhabitants' but if 'there is not a degree of unanimity as to the name', then the name may be chosen by the commissioners that are dividing the county into townships. Each county has the option to adopt or discontinue the township form of government. The operation of townships in Illinois is established primarily by the Township Code (60 ILCS 1). Unlike townships, precincts have no functions in and of themselves and all their administrative functions are performed by the county. Each of those counties is instead divided into precincts. There are 17 counties with no township government: Alexander, Calhoun, Edwards, Hardin, Johnson, Massac, Menard, Monroe, Morgan, Perry, Pope, Pulaski, Randolph, Scott, Union, Wabash, and Williamson. Other forms Ĭook County is organized into townships except for the city of Chicago: in 1902, voters in Chicago chose to abolish the eight townships in the city. The 1848 Constitution of Illinois granted the voters of counties the ability to divide their county into townships. Chicago was chartered as the state's first city in 1837. Local government in the Illinois Territory, and the state of Illinois after 1818 statehood, was predominantly handled by the state's counties, although towns and villages also existed. Nonetheless, many township names remain duplicates in Illinois. State law specifies that no two townships in Illinois shall have the same name, and that, if the Illinois Secretary of State compares the township abstracts and finds a duplicate, the county that last adopted the name shall instead adopt a different name at the next county board meeting. The legal name of each township is the form '_ Township' or 'Town of _'.

All told, Illinois has 1,428 such townships, and they are the slight majority of the state's general units of local government. Of the 102 counties of the state of Illinois, 84 are organized into civil townships, usually referred to as simply 'townships' in state law.

Definition of superviser township