CHICAGO – In an election year where change was a buzzword, Illinois voters were handed a big chance to order up a closer look at state government.

A referendum on Tuesday’s ballot asked voters whether the state should call a constitutional convention. The statewide question is required every 20 years.

If passed, voters will go back to the polls to elect convention delegates. Any changes to the constitution drawn up by delegates would go back to Illinois voters for final approval.

Voters rejected the same question by a 3-1 margin the last time it was on the ballot, in 1988, and opponents including the League of Women Voters, Illinois Chamber of Commerce, Illinois Farm Bureau and AFL-CIO of Illinois raised some $600,000 to argue against a convention this time around.

Opponents said a convention would open up the Illinois Constitution to unnecessary changes and meddling by interest groups that would do nothing to solve problems. Proponents argued that state corruption and insider dealmaking won’t end without substantive change.

The last Illinois convention was held in 1969, where delegates crafted a far-reaching bill of rights while streamlining and eliminating archaic laws and language.

The 2008 proposal wound up before a judge, who ruled that wording explaining the referendum on the ballot falsely described its requirements for passage. He said the text was biased because it unnecessarily recounted the 1988 rejection by voters.

The judge ordered poll workers to hand out blue sheets of paper informing voters of the misleading ballot information.