On May 4, an Illinois state trial court removed five Republicans from the primary ballot for McLean County Board. One of the candidates is an incumbent and the chair of the county board. See this story. Their primary petitions didn’t have page numbers.
Why do they need page numbers? Anyway, in my state, the local clerks and registrars time stamp the petitions when they arrive for certification; that would seem to be sufficient to identify them, even if a few of them have the same hour and minute.
And, finally, IMO, its inappropriate for members of one party to challenge the primary petitions of another party’s candidates. At the least, the party whose primary it is should be the judge of the validity of the petitions of its own primary, as I have already stated.
On why the law requires pages to be numbered:
“It allows people to identify specific pages of a petition and to refer to information contained thereon by reference to a page number…”
Who else started giggling from this? Also, please note the use of “allow” in the reasoning of why something is required.
“…It also prevents tampering, thereby preserving not only the integrity of the petitions submitted but the election process in general,” the lawsuits said.
Can someone explain how this statement might be true?
@Walter
If primaries are publicly funded and admininstered, then an opposing party would have the right to challenge another party’s primary petitions.
A publicly funded primary may require a party to allow independents to vote in that primary, but the party still owns its own label, and should be the final judge of who may or may not carry it.
IMO, if a qualified party wants to add candidates to a primary ballot without petitioning, it should be able to do so.
You’re right!