June 28 was the deadline for objections to be filed against Illinois petitions for the nominees of unqualified parties, and for independent candidates. All of the statewide minor party and independent petitions have been challenged, including the statewide petitions of the Libertarian and Constitution Parties.
The Green Party is not subject to worries about petition challenges, because it is a qualified party and already nominated its candidates in the February 2010 primary.
The challenger against the Libertarian and Constitution slates is Sharon Ann Meroni of Barrington Hills. She is also the only person who objected to the independent gubernatorial petition of Scott Lee Cohen. To the extent that Meroni is associated with the Republican Party (which she is), it is puzzling that she also challenged Cohen’s petition, because Cohen is an independent Democrat. UPDATE: Meroni explains the basis for her challenges at her web page here. She is challenging on the basis that they didn’t prove they meet the constitutional qualifications to hold the offices they are running for. If this is the only challenge to these petitions, the petitions are virtually certain to be upheld. Thanks to Jeff Trigg for the link.
Just because a challenge is filed does not mean that the challenged petitions are now invalid. The State Board of Elections must now hold quasi-judicial hearings on the validity of each signature on the various challenged petitions. The amount of work for the State Board of Elections, handling challenges, may possibly result in a demand that the Illinois ballot access system be reformed.
I’m not sure if it’s a clerical error on the board of election’s web site, but the Constitution Party’s candidate for U.S. Senate Randy Stufflebeam is not specifically listed as being challenged, even though he was on the same petition as 6 other statewide candidates who were challenged.
http://www.elections.il.gov/ElectionInformation/LatestFiled.aspx?ID=29
If there really is no challenge filed against him and if the petitions were found deficient in the other candidates’ cases, can he still remain on the ballot?
England had some 47 political parties on their ballot. But in this FASCIST nation we allow anyone to to throw political parties off the ballot.
Americans are truly idiots.
Sharon Ann Meroni (aka Chalice Jackson) is challenging ALL of the candidates on the basis that they did not prove they are US citizens. Which is completely without merit and ridiculous.
The address Meroni lists on her objections is:
ONE SURREY LANE
BARRINGTON HILLS, IL 60010
@PFK They must have “fixed” it or just registered that crazy woman’s challenge.
It is frustrating that someone in the BoE has to take the time to dismiss these frivolous challenges. Is there a way that, like someone who files excessive lawsuits, she can be financial penalized for wasting our state’s limited resource?
Gary,
I can understand the driving sentiment behind your comment: it is disheartening that in the UK one only needs 2 people, £150, a party constitution, and a financial plan where here it takes so much more. However, you are incorrect in claiming that “anyone can throw political parties of the ballot” and are absolutely wrong in calling the US a “fascist nation.”
On the claim of ballot challenges, it is not the party that is being thrown off the ballot it is a candidate. In this example a woman (most likely a “birther”) is trying to make every candidate prove that they are a US citizen. The reason that Republican, Democratic, and Green candidates were not targeted in this motion was that Ms. Meroni, et al challenged the February primaries and this week was the window for challenging those candidates from ‘non-qualified’ parties(needles to say, they lost).
As for calling the US a “fascist nation,” I hope that this is just thoughtless hyperbole. There are a number of legitimate issues one may have with the American government, but fascism is not one of them. You may feel that the US acts in ways that are totalitarian, repressive, xenophobic, or oppressive but that does not validate the use of the term. Consider using better, specific terms when expressing your viewpoints instead of being lazy and calling something that you dislike and seems to limit freedoms “fascists.” If you don’t readers may be likely to think that you are, like the Americans you disparage, an idiot.
Can Richard or anyone else explain the Heffernan challenge to statewide LP candidates and I believe CP candidaets also? Does anyone know the basis behind that challenge? Heffernan seems to be the only objector who filed an objection to all candidates together rather than each one separately. Are there different implications to objections filed in these two different ways? Thanks!