The Illinois Secretary of State’s Office has implemented numerous changes in recent years, but two dramatic shifts are on the horizon.

The most noteworthy change is a bill passed by the Illinois General Assembly that would allow the Secretary of State’s Office to issue driver’s licenses that will remain valid for double the current four-year term.

Under the provisions of SB 0275, Illinois motorists will be given the option to receive a driver’s license that would remain valid for eight years, a similar figure to those offered by states like Florida and Georgia.

That change won’t go into effect immediately in 2025, as the General Assembly has mandated that the Secretary of State’s Office formulate rules and policies related to the eight-year license, and to submit those rules by Jan. 1., 2027.

The new licenses would then be offered no later than July 1, 2027, according to officials.

Another significant change will impact Illinois residents sooner than that, with the Secretary of State’s Office having the ability to issue mobile ID cards and driver’s licenses by the end of 2025.

The new policy would allow motorists or residents to download a specialized app that would display their identification cards on a mobile device, with law enforcement and other entities required to accept that type of identification.

The bill does not require motorists or residents to have the mobile ID cards.

Finally, Illinois and other states will face a soft deadline of May 7, 2025 to require that identification cards be REAL ID-compliant in order to enter federal facilities, or when passing through TSA checkpoints at airports.

There is still some uncertainty of how strictly that policy will be enforced, as it is possible the TSA will instead implement a warning system to alert passengers whose identification cards aren’t compliant with the legislation.

More information can be found on the TSA’s website.

Illinois could soon see a new state flag as part of a contest from the Illinois Secretary of State, which was whittled to 10 entries from nearly 5,000.

Tuesday, the Illinois Flag Commission revealed their 10 choices for the public balloting, which is set to take place in January, according to officials.

Those flags, along with previous Illinois flags and the state’s current banner, will go up for a public vote. The commission will then make their recommendations to the state’s General Assembly later in 2025, officials said.

The contest opened in September, with guidelines saying the design “must reflect the identity of Illinois. Officials said there is no limit on what colors must be used, but a loose guideline was that flag designs should have three or fewer colors.

Design elements could include natural features of the state, history and culture of the state, an announcement said. According to officials, there was no limit on flag shape or ration, but designs were subject to being edited by the commission.

Those who submitted a flag design for consideration were also required to provide an entry explaining their relationship to Illinois, as well as a description of their design.

Here are the 10 designs chosen by the commission. The descriptions and meaning behind each flag can be found here.

Photos: Illinois flag design proposals released by commission

Under provisions of SB 1818, voters will get an opportunity to choose between the flag designs published by the committee, but the final say on whether the state will adopt a new banner, and which banner will fly over the Capitol, belongs to the General Assembly.

Illinois’ current flag incorporates the state’s official seal, which was adopted in 1869. The flag itself was adopted in 1915, with a small addition of the state’s name added in 1970, according to the Flag Commission’s website.

Numerous states have adopted new flags in recent years, including Minnesota, who designed and unveiled a new banner in 2024.

Mississippi and Utah have also unveiled new flags, though other states have made minor changes to their designs or have codified specific standards for their banners.

Rankings of state flags have routinely put Illinois on the lower end of the list, with critics pointing to the state’s use of the official seal rather than a unique design.