On July 22, the Illinois Green Party will ask a federal judge to put its statewide slate of candidates on the November 2014 ballot. The case is Summers v Smart, 1:14-cv-5398, northern district. The party argues that the combination of these election laws, taken together, are unconstitutional: (1) the restriction on getting signatures before March 2014; (2) the full slate requirement, which required the party to find a qualified attorney to run for Attorney General and thus delayed the start of the drive; (3) the requirement that each page be notarized; (4) the necessity for the party to find at least twelve individuals who would spend the full day at the State Board of Elections offices for the signature verification challenge hearing.
It’d be nice if the judge would rule in favor of democratic elections and put the Green and Constitution Parties on the ballot (in all fairness they can’t just put us on the ballot, the Const. Party collected about the same number of signatures we did; the LP’s probably on regardless), but Michael “Darth Sidious” Madigan will probably tell the judge to decide in favor of the state or else. Heh. I hope Madigan likes political satire if that’s the case, because I’m sure the ILGP can come up with more if need be.