This year, the Illinois Libertarian Party will attempt to complete the very difficult requirement for U.S. House in the 14th district. Libertarian nominee Doug Marks needs 16,743 valid signatures to be assured a place on the ballot. The 14th district stretches across northern Illinois from east to west, and once was represented by former Republican speaker Dennis Hastert.

In 2008, after Hastert retired, the district chose a Democrat, Bill Foster. The vote in 2008 was 185,404 for the Democrat, and 135,653 for the Republican nominee, Jim Oberweis. The Green nominee in 2008, Robert Hill, was removed from the ballot after Democrats challenged the paperwork by which the Greens nominated him. This district is still considered marginal, and it is very likely that Marks’ petition will be challenged.

If the Libertarian Party manages to collect 16,743 valid signatures for Marks, that will set a new petitioning record nationwide for candidate for U.S. House. The most difficult petition requirement that has ever been overcome for that office was 12,919 signatures, collected by independent Frazier Reams in Ohio in 1954.

Many U.S. House nominees of unqualified political parties have managed to be on the ballot in Illinois, but only because Illinois permits anyone to get on the general election ballot with any number of signatures (no matter how tiny) if no one brings a petition challenge against them. For instance, in 1996, Libertarians were on the ballot for ten of the twenty Illinois U.S. House districts, but not because they completed the difficult 5% petitions. Instead, Libertarians in 1996 filed candidates in all the U.S. House districts, and in half of them, no one bothered to challenge the Libertarians, who typically submitted only a dozen or so signatures.

On rare occasions, someone files a challenge in Illinois and then withdraws the challenge. Bill Scheurer, U.S. House nominee of the Moderate Party in Illinois’ 8th district in 2006, appeared on the ballot because a challenge to his petition was withdrawn. Democrats had challenged him, but withdrew the challenge after Scheurer filed his own lawsuit alleging that Democrats had tricked him into hiring a paid petitioning company that secretly plotted to sabotage his petition.