June 23 was the Illinois petition deadline for independent candidates, and candidates of unqualified parties. Besides the 49,000 signatures turned in by the Libertarian Party, and the 52,000 turned in by Ralph Nader, there were also petitions submitted by the Constitution Party and the New Party. Illinois is the only state in which someone can get on the general election ballot with a petition that is below the legal minimum. However, this only happens when no one challenges a petition that is below the legal minimum. The Constitution Party and New Party petitions don’t have as many as 25,000 signatures, so they will wait to see if they are challenged. The New Party presidential candidate is John Joseph Polachek of Chicago.
Another unique Illinois law requires unqualified parties to file a complete slate of candidates. This means that, this year, they must run somone for U.S. Senator if they are also running someone for president. The Libertarian and Constitution Parties followed this law, but the New Party did not include a candidate for U.S. Senate, so that is another basis on which the New Party petition could be challenged. This Illinois law is probably unconstitutional, however.
Way to go Illinois LP, another state with ballot access!
As I recall, New York also gives ballot access to people who walk in with fewer than the required number of signatures but do not draw a challenge.
One more regime with separate and unequal ballot access laws.
Still waiting for a genius lawyer to show up to do a PROPER case with a PROPER argument — unlike the MORON lawyers with BAD losing arguments since 1968.
No, NY State Bd of Elections removes candidates on its own motion, when the number of signatures submitted is conspicuously below the minimum. That’s why the Constitution Party wasn’t on the ballot in 2004 in New York. The party submitted a dinky petition but the NY Board itself disallowed it.
On those New Party petitions
“his paperwork, naming his party as the New Party, included just one petition page with no signatures on it.”
Yeah, it’s safe to say that Polachek won’t make it on the ballot.
LOL, and I was just going to ask if he had any relation to the original “New Party”: http://www.newparty.org/
Actually, in regards to New York State invalidating the Constitution Party’s petition, I (as well as others) was told that the correct number of signatures was turned in and that they were later invalidated by the NYBOE. That’s entirely plausible since in New York, whole petitions can, and routinely are, rejected merely because of the fact that the petitioner used a paper clip when he should have used a staple, or the staple was put in the wrong place. That’s why it’s so difficult for a candidate unfamiliar with the petition rules to get their name on the ballot. The opposition can easily challenge them and later claim that “he is only defending democracy from people who are trying to violate the rules which are there for good reason”. (Yes, that’s actually been said many a time, although they fail to say what the good reasons are.)
Either way, the group that was collecting the signatures is no longer affiliated with the national Constitution Party, even though they still use the New York Constitution Party name and still are active on a local and, to a lesser extent, state level. The national Constitution Party has named new coordinators for New York but they really haven’t done anything to grow the party in the State. Therefore, the Constitution Party probably will not appear on the ballot here in November. And frankly, until the New York Conservative Party dies out, and it’s slowly doing that for various reasons, the CP probably won’t be able to gain a foothold here since they both compete for the same type of voter.
The New Party candidate would easily get thrown off if challenged. However, it’s not a certainty that he would actually get challenged, especially if the Democrats and Republicans can’t figure out who he would draw votes from.
In 2002, Marisellis Brown turned in a petition to get on the ballot for Governor of Illinois. He signed it, his mom signed it, and he wrote “all the black people, all the poor people.” He wasn’t challenged and got 0.65% of the vote, including mine.
Some heros in the recent Illinois Libertarian Party ballot access effort that should be acknowledged, include:
Ken Prazek
Julie Shephard
Jan & Don (Greenville)
Jake Witmer
And a handful of Libertarian Petitioners from the East Metro St. Louis area, and West Chicago area who gathered the bulk of the signatures.
You all know who you are. Congrats for a job well done!