On July 20, the deadline for minor party and independent petitions in Illinois, five petitions were submitted for president: Kanye West as an independent; Kyle Kopitke as an independent; the Party for Socialism and Liberation; the Constitution Party; and the American Solidarity Party.
UPDATE: the petition for Don Blankenship for President has been removed from the Illinois State Board of Elections list, almost certainly becaues it did not have at least 250 signatures. Illinois State Board of Elections officials, for several years now, have been automatically rejecting petitions that don’t have at least 10% of the requirement. The requirement this year for president is 2,500 signatures.
Here is the list of petitioning candidates from the State Board of Elections. The list will be amended later to list the Democratic, Republican, and Libertarian candidates for president, and the Libertarian candidate for U.S. Senate. They didn’t need to petition.
The Constitution Party petition for U.S. Senate, for Chad Koppie, is listed. All of the petitions are subject to challenge. The challenge must be filed no later than Monday, July 27. For U.S. House, the only minor party that submitted any petitions is the Libertarian Party, which has three candidates. The Green Party candidate listed for the Fifth District did not need to petition. There are three independents for U.S. House.
What, no Don Blankenbooney? The CP website showed them petitioning there: https://www.constitutionparty.com/elections/ballot-access/
What happened to the Constitution Party? I know they were paying for signatures there. I heard they hired somebody who was not getting the job done, butvI also heard they were bringing in reinforcements. I am pretty sure that in IL, you can bring in less than the required number, and still make the ballot if nobody challenges the petition. So why did the Constitution Party not turn in their signatures?
Maybe the CP of Illinois was handling the operation and when they decided to dissolve the didn’t hand in any signatures?
I know the Constitution Party National Committee was paying for the petition drive.
Well what about Rocky De La Fuente? He also missed out in Oklahoma. But he did get Colorado recently. Also what about Brock Pierce and Jade Simmons?
Chicago native, rapper, and now presidential candidate Kanye West has enough signatures to make it onto the Illinois ballot.
On Monday night, the Illinois Board of Elections confirmed with CBS 2 that West filed 412 petition sheets around 5 p.m.
Maybe the Constitution party are thinking of replacing Blaken or whatever his name is with West?
How many GOP fascist $$$ for KW to divide and conquer black Donkey voters ???
ie KW — one more useful IDIOT ???
Thank you, Dumbo.
Don Blankenship did file it looks like: https://www.elections.il.gov/ElectionOperations/CandidateDetailEO.aspx?CandidateID=UGmnJzfbdzX82py8WcFqcg%3d%3d&ElectionID=8R2QDecwarI%3d&T=637309188312482063
The original post depended on a newspaper story, and the newspaper story did not mention Don Blankenship. The post is now based on the official candidate list at the webpage of the State Board of Elections.
I have a feeling there may be others. Kyle Kopitke looks to have filed as well. I know Mark Charles, and the Socialist Equality Party were petitioning. I heard rumors the Socialist Workers Party was petitioning as well.
Sources claim democrat Pacs are behind the kanye candidacy and he will try to split the conservative vote by running as a hard right conservative and cutting into the trump vote.
Now that the Illinois State Board of Elections has put the list of petitioning candidates into a printable list (which had not been done earlier) that shows the Board has finished the listing.
412 sheets? Was each one full? Doesn’t sound challenge proof.
@Vg and Richard – Where is anybody seeing Don Blankenship on that list? Search by last name = nothing. Search by office = nothing. Doesn’t look updated to me. Also, it lists the Green Party as petitioning, but Richard says they didn’t have to?
I’m a little surprised more didn’t submit signature last even if far less than the 25k. As Andy mentioned above, I believe if you submit 1 single valid signature and no one challenges it than you’re on the ballot. Perhaps I am wrong on this but I thought that’s what they’ve done in the past. If that’s the case some of these people might as well have turned in some signatures and hope no one challenges.
David, I’m not sure that’s true on democrat pacs but possibly. The reason I’m skeptical is I’ve heard some domocrats concerned he could siphon some of the black vote away from Biden. In Illinois it likely won’t matter though. Or Oklahoma for that matter where he’s also on.
They might be concerned with it because he’s black, but that doesn’t necessarily mean black people will vote for him more than others. Alan Keyes is is black, but what support he has had has tended to be white. If west runs as a rabid right wing populist with a twinge of trump craziness he’s more likely to cut into trump support than Biden’s.
Brad, ever since 2018, the Board automatically rejects all petitions that don’t have at least 10% of the legal requirement. This is not according to any Illinois law; it is just what the Board decided to do.
So would that be 250 or 2500 for president this year? Or do we know?
Good to know Richard. Thank you for the information
It should be illegal for the election board to make up rules with no basis in law.
The Constitution Party did have paid petitioners in IL. I find it hard to believe they did not have more than 250 signatures.
The legal requirement is 25k. If they interpret their 10% as applying to their number they might still reject anything below 2500 raw, even though the court order is they only need 2500 valid. And if the signatures got into the hands of their former state chair, do we know that he wouldn’t accidentally misplace them on purpose? I don’t know that he would either, but accidents happen. Someone else could have also genuinely screwed up the turnin process. Or maybe they did turn them in and the website updates are still being made? Richard said above that it was there and then later someone said it wasn’t. Maybe it’s in the midst of a format conversion?
The Constitution Party should remember how petitioners like Andy screwed over Virgil Goode and demanded he pay them for the shitty job they did.
Wayne, the statutory requirement is 25,000, but the legal requirement is 2,500. Courts have the last word deciding what is legal.
Gabe, it was actually Virgil Goode who screwed over petitioners, and not only Andy. Other petitioners working for him got stiffed in NY and other states. He’s a millionaire grifter, liar and leech who lived off taxpayer money for years. He’s also a bigot and has never shown loyalty to any party, so the constitution party laid down with a dog and woke up with fleas, and not having learned anything did so again this year. In 2008 and 2016 they did a better job of picking nominees. In other news, my friends in Illinois report computer problems at the SOS elections office yesterday, which may have something to do with the confusion over who filed and who didn’t as seen in earlier comments above.
Congressman Virgil Goode is an honorable man of character. Petitioners are the opposite. I’ve heard stories of petitioners creating fake veterans scams, faking social security numbers, and kidnapping and murdering dogs. I’m more inclined to believe Virgil Goode.
Kidnapping and murdering dogs was a phony story as the original source has already admitted. One former petitioner who as far as anyone knows was already out of that business by the time Goode ran, is known to have engaged in veterans scams and faking SS numbers. Petitioners and congressmen both have more than their share of crappy behavior, but having known a fair number of both, on average congressmen are worse. Goode is no exception, as he is a dishonorable snake and a lying lawyer and shady politician. Blankenship is a crooked businessman who should have been convicted of much more serious crimes than he was.
Thanks for the help, Donnie Boy:
On Thu, Jul 16, 2020 at 5:13 PM Don Blankenship wrote:
I am mostly leaving this effort to the Party. They are currently getting signatures in NJ, Alaska, and Illinois. We have sued in Calif. But there may be others working on it in other states too.
Don
Sent from my iPad
Frank Fluckiger is a great leader. Only a liar or a scumbag asshole without any knowledge would say what Cody Quark says above.
One more thing. Cody’s gravatar is ugly and promoting satanism. That might explain why he said what he said.
Looks like Blankenship being removed earlier was an error or premature, because when I go to the link provided he’s on the list at the bottom of the Presidential candidates
With candidates like Goode and Blankensip and chairs like Flukiger it’s no wonder the CP’s ballot affiliates are leaving in droves and their ballot access and number of states participating in their national convention keeps going down. By 2024 they may be eclipsed by the Life and Liberty Party or some other snapping up most of their ballot lines and affiliates.
Looks like Kanye has no VP on his listing. Can he go on the ballot like that? Or does he tell them his vp later?
Yep Blankenship is back. Maybe he was so close to being below 250 they had to count it a few times to make sure.
Life & Liberty LOL. Have you seen their website? Amateurish at best.
Constitution Party’s isn’t that great either. Any party get a new and better website though. The Libertarians get a new one every few years and each time it seems to get worse. I only remember the last one or two changeovers of the Constitution Party but they were also both downgrades IMO. The Green website certainly was changed for the worse. It’s not just party websites, either. Every time facebook introduces layout or other major changes, for example, they make it crappier.
@Pete – That’s nothing compared to Microsoft Office updates. I used to be pretty good with Excel, but now it’s like they’ve moved the furniture in a blind man’s house.
I use Microsoft Works.