On October 5, the Illinois legislature set a date for a vote on overriding Governor Pat Quinn’s veto of HB 723. That vote will come on October 14. HB 723 is the bill that requires candidates nominated by meetings of qualified parties to submit petitions, in order to be on the November ballot. In the past, qualified parties in Illinois have always been permitted to nominate candidates by party meeting, after the primary, if that party had not nominated anyone in its own primary for that particular office. HB 723 retains that procedure, but says the nominee needs a petition.
The State of Illinois conducts primaries on behalf of political parties, so they are no cost to the party. If only one candidate files for an office, he is nominated. The only way that there can be a nomination vacancy is if no one actually files saying that they would like to be nominated by the party.
If a party does nominate someone, and they die or become disabled or otherwise disqualified, they are free to nominate someone else, with no petition requirement.
Illinois even permits write-in candidates in primaries. So if the party bosses wanted to, they could select a candidate and have him file as a write-in candidate. They could then simply have party workers at the polling places reminding voters to write in the name of the selected candidate. They could also send mail or e-mail to party members.
FYI ballot access supporters: Jim Riley is a plant.