On July 28, an independent candidate for U.S. House filed a federal lawsuit against Illinois’ 5% (of the last vote cast) petition requirement for that office. Illinois law says that in years after redistricting, such as 1982, 1992, 2002, etc., the number of signatures for an independent for U.S. House is exactly 5,000 signatures. But in all other election years, it is 5% of the last vote cast, which can be as high as 13,000 signatures.
The plaintiff is Allan Stevo, running in the 10th district. He submitted approximately 7,150 signatures, but he was challenged. The law requires him to submit 10,111. He will submit evidence showing that in years in which the requirement is only 5,000 signatures, the ballot is never crowded. The 5,000-signature requirement for years after redistricting has been in effect starting with 1982, and when one looks at the record for 1982, 1992, and 2002, one finds that there were no U.S. House races in Illinois with more than three candidates on the ballot (except that there was one race with four candidates). The case is Stevo v Illinois State Board of Elections, U.S. District Court, Central District, no. 08-3162.
I live in Allan Stevo’s district. This year, Illinois will vote on whether we should hold a constitutional convention. I hope that it passes and that the new constitution states that all candidates, for the same office, will submit the same number of petition signatures.
Although the courts have tended to uphold signature requirements, it will be interesting to see if they uphold these, because the numbers change for no legitimate reason in redistricting years.