As has been noted, the Illinois Senate had earlier passed a bill drastically easing ballot access for minor party candidates as well as fixing the constitutional infirmities with independent candidate ballot access. But the House had passed a bill that only fixes the constitutional problems with independent candidate ballot access. It is looking increasingly likely that the House approach will prevail.

The Illinois legislature is foolish not to fix problems with minor party ballot access. Existing law says the nominee of an unqualified party, and an independent, running for US House, needs only 5,000 signatures in years following redistricting. But in all other years, they need a petition of 5% of the last vote cast, which is sometimes as high as 14,000 or 15,000 signatures. It is likely that a new lawsuit will be filed, arguing that if 5,000 signatures is enough in years ending in the digit “2”, then there can be no strong state interest in having almost triple that number of signatures in other election years.