On May 15, the Illinois Senate unanimously passed HB 723, which requires qualified parties that nominate after the primary (by party committee) to submit a petition of approximately one-half of 1% of the last vote cast for that party in the last general election, for each nominee. The bill needs to go back to the House for another vote, since the Senate version differs from the House version. The House version was worse; it required petitions of 5% of the last vote cast.
Ballot Access News
Edited By Richard Winger
This is simply the same signature requirement that would be required had the candidate filed to run in the primary in the first place.
The party committees that may fill nomination vacancies are composed of (precinct, etc.) committeemen who are also elected in the primary.
In Illinois, a “qualified party” is qualified to hold a primary where the persons who constitute the party (the voters) may choose its nominees.
The logic of requiring a petition is completely missing when a party nominates someone by convention or committee. The purpose of the petition in connection with a primary election is to keep the primary ballot from being too crowded. That is not a concern when a meeting is choosing someone.
I am confused. In MN major parties get on the primary ballot with a filing fee. Independents and minor parties don’t run in the primary, but petition for the general election..is this what this proposed law would do?
what does this phrase in the mean?
The logic of a party nominating by convention or committee is completely missing when the law provides that the party nominate by primary.
The whole premise of Illinois law is that if a party’s candidates does modestly well in the general election, they qualify to choose their nominees the next election in the primary.
Illinois law does provide for nomination vacancies to be fill by committee designation in special cases such as when the vacancy is due to death, disability, or the nominee moving from a district where there is a residency qualification.
The current system where parties slate nominees when nobody files for the primary, and thus no one is nominated, is a loophole.
SB.111 simply would simply require that a slated nominee get the same number of signatures that he would have needed votes had he run as a write-in candidate in the primary; or if they had filed to run in the primary in the first place.
#3 In Illinois, candidates for nomination by any established party run in the primary. The State of Illinois conducts the primary, and a voter may choose which primary they vote in, since Illinois does not have party registration.
A candidate for nomination in the primary files a petition demonstrating support from primary voters of his party. He may also file as a write-in candidate for the primary without a petition. If there are no write-in candidates and one or less filing candidates, that office does not appear on the primary ballot for the party.
If there are two or more candidates, the primary decides the nominee. If only one candidate filed, they are the nominee.
If no candidates had filed there is no nominee (except if there was a write-in candidate who, can be nominated if he gets as many votes as he would have needed if he had filed in the first place.
It is in these cases – where nobody even bothered to file to run in the primary that is at issue here.
Under current law, the various party committeemen who are also elected at the primary may choose a nominee for a party. In choosing the nominee, they have voting strength equal to the number of persons who voted in the primary in their jurisdiction (precinct, ward, town, etc.). In effect, it could be regarded as an indirect primary or a mini-electoral college.
The proposed change in law would simply require that the nominee chosen by this process demonstrate support from the party rank-and-file that he would have needed to file for the primary originally, or would have required had had to receive running as a write-in candidate.
Slating is not particularly a 3rd or minor party phenomena. The Democratic and Republican parties also utilize it.
#4 The State Board of Elections has oversight over primary and general elections, which are conducted by county boards of elections. If you file for an office above the county level, you file with the SBOE, and they in turn direct the CBOE’s to place your name on the ballots in their county.
The SBOE currently has similar authority if you filed as candidate for a primary, or if you petitioned as an independent candidate, so there is nothing malevolent per se.
In practice there may be. Richard Winger has suggested that the challenging of petitions is somewhat of an irregular occurrence. You could file a totally bogus petition and it might not be challenged, or file a petition that is slightly defective and have that challenged. Barack Obama when he first ran for state senator in Illinois successfully challenged the petition of another candidate (I think she may even have been previously elected from the district).
Jim, you are misrepresenting this bill. I say misrepresenting this, because you continue to say the same things over and over despite being presented with clear evidence that what you’re saying is incorrect.
Yes, the signature requirements are the same, but HB723 means that candidates have to collect those signatures in HALF the time candidates get before the primary, and they need approval from committeepeople to do it. Thus, the slating requirements are NOT on par with the primary filing requirements. They are much more burdensome.
Given that the intent is to let the voters choose the nominee of the party, any such “burden” is reasonable. You certainly don’t want to give an incentive to bypassing the voters, as is the case under the current system.
The committeemen are chosen by the rank and file voters of the party. It is a matter of public record who the party voters are. The committeemen could solicit the opinion of these voters as to who the nominee should be and whose interest within the party they were elected to represent. The committeemen could also carry the petition around to the party voters.
The Green Party senate candidate got around 120,000 votes, or about 6,000 per congressional district. 1/2 of 1% is about 30 signatures to run for Congress.
30 signatures over 30 days?