Illinois voters ought not be fooled by the so-called recall amendment.

Eighteen states already have the power to recall elected officials, including the governor, and Illinoisans will decide Nov. 2 if they wish to become the 19th by adding a gubernatorial recall provision to the state's Constitution.

But, like so much else in state government, the proposed amendment is a sham. It should be emphatically rejected.

Whether it's advisable to give voters the power to recall public officials is an issue worthy of serious debate. Only two governors in U.S. history, North Dakota's Lynn Frazier in 1921 and California's Gray Davis in 2003, have been recalled.

The sparse use of that awesome power can be viewed as evidence that it is unnecessary.

Under any circumstance, recall is problematic. Public officials regularly have to run for re-election, and the recall option could undermine the democratic process by introducing even more instability into the system. The impeachment power also is in place. Many political observers contend that's ample authority to address a problem politician.

Then again, recall supporters assert, what are voters to do in situations like those created by former Gov. Rod Blagojevich, perhaps the most inept and destructive governor in the state's history?

The problem with this proposed amendment is that it's a very clever ruse, one designed to appeal to angry voters but drafted in a way that makes it virtually meaningless.

Under the proposed amendment, a move to recall a governor could win a spot on the ballot only if two provisions are met.

The proposal would have to be approved by 20 members of the Illinois House and 10 members of the Illinois Senate, with the numbers equally divided between Democrats and Republicans.

Once legislators' support is garnered, sponsors would be required to collect signatures that total at least 15 percent of the number of ballots cast in the last gubernatorial election. That's hundreds of thousand of signatures,

These unrealistic standards were established by legislative leaders not to allow, but to prevent, recall.

If Illinois voters learned anything about the Blagojevich/Ryan disasters, it's not that incompetent and crooked people get elected to high office but that their fellow party members will stick with them until it becomes politically impossible to continue doing so.

Few Republicans spoke out against the corruption of the Ryan administration, and few Democrats turned on Blagojevich until after he was arrested by the FBI.

Is it realistic to think that enough legislators from the incumbent governor's party will give their assent to a recall petition? Hardly.

This proposal is a cynical ploy that will do nothing to advance the cause of recalling a lousy governor. Our legislators, once again, are counting on fooling the public with the pretense of action. The amendment should be rejected.