On October 24, the Illinois Green Party filed a lawsuit in state court in Chicago to preserve its qualified party status in the U.S. House and state legislative districts in which it polled 5% in November 2010. Illinois law says if a party polls at least 5% for a district office, then that party is automatically qualified in that district in the next election.

In November 2010, the Green Party nominees for U.S. House in the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 18th districts each received over 5% of the vote. These districts are all in the Chicago area, except the 18th district is centered on Peoria. Also in 2010, the Green Party nominees for State House received over 5% of the vote in the 29th, 39th, 68th, 79th, 105th, and 115th districts. But the state says the party’s qualified status in all these districts is inoperative because redistricting this year changed their boundaries.

This same issue arose after the 2001 redistricting in Illinois, for Libertarians. In 2002 one State Court of Appeals, the First District, ruled in favor of continued qualified status; but another State Court of Appeals, the Second District, ruled against continued qualified status. Neither decision was appealed to the State Supreme Court, so the issue remains ambiguous. The 2002 cases were Preuter v State Officers Electoral Board (the favorable ruling, from Cook County), and Vestrup v DuPage County (the unfavorable one). The new Green Party lawsuit is Schmidt v State Board of Elections, in Cook County Circuit Court, 11-ch-36783. Thanks to Phil Huckelberry for this news.