Although Illinois has drawn new U.S. House district boundaries for the 2010’s decade, those boundaries are under legal attack and could conceivably change before the March 2012 primary. On August 26, a U.S. District Court in Chicago ruled that signatures collected by candidates seeking a place on the primary ballot in 2012 are valid, even if the boundaries later change. See this story.
This ruling may help the Illinois Green Party, which is fighting to retain its qualified status in over a dozen U.S. House and state legislative districts. Illinois says a party that polled 5% for a partisan district office in one election is then qualified to be on the ballot automatically in the next election for that district office, even if the party is not qualified statewide. However, even though the Green Party has this status in over a dozen districts from the 2010 election, elections officials may eliminate the party’s status on the grounds that the boundaries of those districts changed.