Free & Equal has organized a press conference at the Illinois State Capitol Press Room, for 3 p.m, Tuesday, April 28. The purpose of the press conference is to criticize HB 723, which makes it virtually impossible for qualified parties to nominate candidates after the primary has been held.
The Senate Local Government Committee hears the bill today at 1 p.m.
Illinois permits write-in candidates for party primaries. And petition requirements for smaller parties can be quite modest. For example, only 30 signatures were necessary for Green Party candidates for the special election to replace Rahm Emanuel.
Slating is simply a process to bypass the electorate and to impose the choices of the party bosses.
The petition requirements for “smaller” parties is NOT quite modest Jim Riley. The Green Party became established so they are not considered a “smaller” party by the law and have the lower petition requirements of the “bigger” parties. In reality, Illinois liberals and Democrats have made Illinois one of the hardest places for independents and “new” party candidates to get on the ballot in the world with some of the most severe restrictions. Finding one example from the Green Party and using that is dishonest.
Slating is simply a process to keep the electorate in check when the electorate FAILS to run anyone in the primary and gives the parties an opportunity to allow voters a choice on the ballot rather than having 75% of races uncontested. Party bosses use election laws designed to reduce political competition exactly like this one to impose their choices on the people of Illinois, not slating laws. The slating law is one small weapon that can be used against party bosses and it would be oppressive to free and equal elections if the slating law is abolished.
In addition to ILLinois’ statements, it’s important to note that the congressional signature requirements are far lower than the state legislature requirements. State Representative is a minimum of 500 signatures and State Senate is a minimum of 1,000 signatures to get on the ballot for an established party primary. Independent and new party candidates need to get a minimum of about five times that amount, with nearly twice that to defend against a challenge. HB 723 would require established party candidates who want to be slated to collect the signature amount required by an INDEPENDENT candidate. Also, the petition collection period would be shortened from 90 to 60 days. These two requirements together increases signature collection per day by tenfold from the primary. How does limiting candidates on the general election ballot benefit voters? This is directly opposite the electoral reforms that the citizens of Illinois have been calling for. It’s just another attempt by the incumbents to consolidate power and dominate the discussion.
Jim, can you explain why this law is actually needed? It’s a solution in search of a problem.
“Jim, can you explain why this law is actually needed? It’s a solution in search of a problem.”
Many of the sponsors in the House were Democrats and Republicans who would have been unopposed if it weren’t for the Greens. If having a second party in these districts is a “problem”, then I guess that HB 723 would be a “solution”.
#2 The petition requirements to run in the Green Party primary are quite modest. And Illinois permits declared write-in candidates in primaries.
#3 The petition requirements for the general assembly should be challenged in court. A percentage requirement is meaningless if in every instance (all 3 established parties, and all 177 districts) a numeric value sets a higher limit. Based on the congressional requirements and scaling by 19/59, it would appear that in some instances the Republican threshold is over 10%, and based on the special congressional primary, the Green party threshold would be over 50% in a senate district that had the same relative primary voting as did the congressional district. I suspect that in some cases it is well over 100%.
It works out that because of the high numeric minimums, that independent candidates for the general assembly typically require perhaps 50% more signatures than to run in a primary.
#3 If you read the existing law, it is clear that the State of Illinois has decided that party candidates should be nominated by the People in primaries, rather than by the party bosses.
The provision for slating is a loophole, where party bosses and would-be candidates may conspire to bypass the party electorate.