On the last day for filing Illinois petition challenges, Rob Sherman filed challenges to the statewide petitions of the Constitution Party and the Socialist Party. He also challenged the petition of independent presidential candidate Mary Vann. These challenges mean that these parties and candidates will not appear on the ballot, because the petitions have substantially fewer signatures than the legal requirement of 25,000.
Rob Sherman is a Green Party member, and is a Green Party nominee for U.S. House this year. However, the Illinois Green Party does not support his actions. Sherman filed similar objections to the Constitution Party and the Socialist Party in Illinois in 2012.
No one has challenged the Libertarian or Green Party petitions, although the period for filing challenges still has not closed. The deadline is July 5 at 5 p.m. Illinois time.
One of our petitions has actually been challenged, that of Dan Silver’s for the 115th representative district. Other than that, the rest of the article is correct, especially the part about the ILGP not agreeing with Sherman’s challenges.
Looks like Jill’s state slate is officially on the ballot. I just got a mass e-mail from Jill’s IL ballot access coordinator, Nancy Wade, saying as much. IL BOE still hasn’t shown any challenged to the slate as of 5:12pm. But darn Sherman for his sabotage!
The person behind Sherman is a shady character named Andrew Finko who does legal work for the Green Party. The “fink” was also behind the challenges to 4 minor parties in 2012.
What a jerk.
If he likes the Democrats’ tactics so much, he should go join them.
Sherman and Finko have blocked one of the only authentic independent socialist parties from the Illinois ballot. It seems an act of petty political party gangsterism. I signed a petition for Richard Whitney some months back; I do not support the actions of Sherman and Finko. They’re afraid of a real critique of capitalism?
As someone who supports the Green Party I agree with Sherman’s actions.
It’s odd that Illinois has this system. Before this, I had never heard of a system that requires a specific amount of signatures, but even if you fall 99% short, it’s still accepted ONLY unless someone disagrees.
How disgusting! It’s acts like this that make so many people sick of politics. This act shows that Rob Sherman does not support free and equal elections and should not have a voice in the Green Party!
“The board resolved to declare that members of COFOE are expected not to challenge the presidential ballot access petitions of other minor parties or independent campaigns.” – Minutes of the Coalition for Free and Open Elections Annual Meeting, July 15, 2012.
The Green Party should be ejected from COFOE unless and until they publicly disavow themselves of Mr. Sherman.
The Green Party HAS publicly disavowed itself from Sherman’s actions.
Link to the statement?
“The Executive Committee of the Illinois Green Party wishes to make it clear in no uncertain terms that we did not solicit, suggest, or approve of any such action.” – http://www.ilgp.org/ballot_challenges2016
Also, it’s worth noting that both the Green Party of Chicago and the DuPage Green Party refused to recognize Rob Sherman’s candidacy as a Green. I’m not from Illinois, but I know there are a lot of Green volunteers down there that would love to see him go away.
Okay good. I withdraw my complaint.
It’s nice to see that there’s at least one Green who understands realpolitik and plays to win. The Green agenda will remain completely irrelevant unless somebody, somewhere actually wins an election or two.
Rob Sherman had every right to file a challenge. Any registered Illinois voter has the right to challenge a petition, and it’s only a problem when the party that turned in the petitions don’t have enough signatures. That’s not Rob Sherman’s, or anyone else’s problem: it’s the fault of the party petitioning. The Greens and Libertarians had double the signatures they needed. If anyone had filed a challenge, they would have met the challenge and been on the ballot regardless. The Socialist and Constitution Parties knew when they turned in fewer than the signatures required that a challenge could, and probably would, occur and that they would fail the challenge. That’s their problem. It might not seem fair, but the political system in this country isn’t fair, and it’s the right of any Illinois voter to challenge a petition if they want. If the Socialist and Constitution Parties are upset, they should work to change the system in Illinois. Until then, they should work harder to meet the petition requirements.
Good point.
No one is saying it wasn’t his right to challenge, we’re saying he’s a dickhead for doing so, and that he went against an unspoken rule that minor parties play nice with one another.
Do the Republicans ever get challenged?
Yes, Republican and Democratic candidates are challenged all the time. It’s a normal part of the process in Illinois. Under the current system, if one isn’t prepared to face a challenge, they’re not prepared to run for office. The challenge process is used as a critical, strategic tool in many cases. For example, let’s say that there are two candidates running for mayor of a small village in a nonpartisan race (Some are partisan, and some are not.) If one successfully challenges their opponent and gets them removed from the ballot, they automatically win the election, as there is no primary election and no chance for anyone else to get on the ballot. Established party candidates also challenge members of their own party in primary elections, hoping to secure the the nomination. In fact, if I recall correctly, none less than Barack Obama used this same challenge process to eliminate the competition in at least one of this races.
No one is disputing that the challenge process is used as a critical, strategic tool. What we’re asserting is that it’s a sleazy maneuver. Go ahead and do it to the major party candidates; after all, they do it to us. But there ought to be some self-restraint between minor parties, because being ruthless with one another always ends up helping the majors.
“…there ought to be some self-restraint between minor parties, because being ruthless with one another always ends up helping the majors.”
Amen!
Ignoring the “Prisoner’s Dilemma” is not a good strategy, especially when you consider that even if the parties themselves were to make such an agreement, and it was appropriate for them to do so, there’s nothing that can stop any individual from filling an objection. It’s a far better strategy to expect challenges, file nominating petitions that meet all the requirements, and defend your petitions. One might argue that if you don’t have enough people and resources to do this, then perhaps you’re not yet viable and don’t deserve a place on the ballot as a party. Maybe the candidate would be better classified as independent at that point. This is not my opinion; however, it’s an opinion that’s out there, and people currently have a right to express that opinions by filling an objection. People file objections for a variety of reasons. Some do it for strategic reasons, but I can imagine someone doing it because they don’t believe in democracy. All it takes is one person. Unless you think that you’re going to convince 100% of everyone in the state, your complaint isn’t an effective means of preventing this in the future. You take a chance when you file an insufficient petition, and that’s on you.
I might also add that there’s an argument that it’s not fair or equitable to provide a place on the ballot to a party that does very little work, and provides only a few signatures, while other parties, such as the Green Party, are forced to do such much work to collect so many signatures, prepare a defense, and in some cases actually defend their petitions. Again, I’m not saying that this is my opinion; but it is one that I know some people hold. Also, you’re lucky that the statewide Illinois State Board of Elections doesn’t immediately reject petitions that are invalid on their face. As I have previously indicated, they have the right to do so; and I have myself seen at least one local election authority do this.
In 2012 Sherman and some other Illinois Greens justified their challenges by putting forth the argument that ONLY THE GREEN PARTY should be on the ballot as a left alternative to the Democrats. Everyone should be forced to vote Green if they wanted to do a protest vote. No other alternatives should be allowed.
How about we do away with petitions all together? It’s the major parties who want to keep out all other parties that are the real problem. We also should be working to get Ranked Choice Voting the norm across this country. Visit jill2016.com/rcv for more information.