On September 21, the Illinois State Board of Elections finally certified Joe Parnarauskis for the ballot for State Senate, 52nd district (Urbana-Champaign). He appears to be the only minor party candidate for district office in Illinois this year who was able to survive a challenge. Democrats had challenged his petition. Even though that process showed he had enough, Democrats on the State Board of Elections had continued to block his certification. The only excuse was that some of his sheets had not shown “52nd State Senate district” at the top of the petition. However, all those sheets did contain that information in the first sentence below the heading. After a state court threatened to hold the Board in contempt if it did not certify Parnarauskis, the Board yielded.