On July 30, a second challenge was made to Illinois ballot access law for minor party and independent candidates for U.S. House. Both the earlier federal lawsuit (Stevo v Keith) and the newer state court case argue that Illinois can have no state interest in requiring approximately 10,000 signatures for U.S. House candidates this year, since Illinois requires exactly 5,000 signatures for that office, for both minor parties and independents, in years following redistricting. The new state case is Druck v Illinois State Bd. of Elections, Cook Co., 2008-COEL-8.
Ballot Access News
Edited By Richard Winger
Challenging this in state court has been talked about for years it’s great to see someone is finally going to try it. Article III, Section 3 of the Illinois Constitution – “All elections shall be free and equal”. I can’t wait to hear how the Illinois Supreme Court squirms through their justification for Illinois’ current unequal, unfree, and anti-democratic laws. And they will, just watch.
Since there is one CD where the percentage-based threshold is less than 5,000, Illinois could argue that the 5,000 is a conservative estimate given the lack of actual data to base the percentage on following redistricting.