Illinois State Court Judge Rules 5% of the Vote for Ballot Access Retention is for Two Years, Not Four

Posted on by November 28, 2023

Background: In the November 2020 General Election, two Libertarian Party countywide candidates in McHenry County, Illinois were in two-way races and received more than 5% of the vote for County Auditor and County Coroner.

A number of members of the Libertarian Party of Illinois thought that that gave the Libertarian Party Established Party status in McHenry County for four years, as that was the length of the term for both those offices. Established Party status is important because it allows a party’s candidates to get on the ballot for Primary elections, which have much lower signature requirements than getting on the ballot for General Elections as an Independent or as a candidate of a Non-Established Party.

In 2022, there was another General Election for other McHenry County countywide offices. In that election, no Libertarian Party candidate received 5% of the vote for any of those offices.

Thinking that the Libertarian Party still had Established Party status, the LP County Chair learned through a discussion with the McHenry County Clerk that the Clerk thought that the LP was no longer an Established Party. Knowing that there was a difference of opinion, the McHenry County Clerk sued the Libertarian Party of Illinois and me, as its Chair, to bring this matter before the Court to decide whose reading of the law of Illinois was correct.

McHenry County Circuit Court Judge Kevin Costello ruled on November 21, 2023, that the law favored the interpretation of the McHenry County Clerk.

Here is the McHenry County Court Decision.

Comments

Illinois State Court Judge Rules 5% of the Vote for Ballot Access Retention is for Two Years, Not Four — 10 Comments

  1. INDIVIDUAL CANDIDATES ON BALLOTS — NOT *PARTIES*.

    EQUAL IN 14-1 AMDT

    SEPARATE IS NOT EQUAL — 1954 BROWN V BD OF ED

    BRAIN DEAD JUDGES SINCE 1968.

  9. The decision does not cite one precedent, and fails to grapple with the point that in Illinois, if a party gets 5% for Governor (which happens in midterm years), it is ballot-qualified for all offices for four years. Even if it gets no support at all in the presidential election year that follows the gubernatorial election in which it met the vote test, it keeps its qualified status. An example is the Illinois Solidarity Party, which kept its status even though it did not poll 5% for anything in 1988. It was still a party in 1990. Same with the Green Party, which got its status in 2006, and kept it into 2010, even though it didn’t get 5% in 2008.

  10. Parties in elections, not individual candidates. No ballots – let trees grow. Standing count elections.

    Hank: yep!

    AZ is a troll, and a moron. Textbook example of brain damage.

    AZ’s never gonna get it, never ever gonna get it. Never gonna get it, never gonna get it, never gonna get it.

    Fake news is fake news. Or, most usually at this site, fAke newZ.

    What is forn? Is that an English language word? Or is that like when you watch pornhub and they talk gibberish, kinda like AZ, but hey, it’s porno, so understanding the dialogue isn’t exactly that crucial to the plot? Again, much like understanding AZ gibberish doesn’t add much if anything here.

    The extent to which fake news covers obscure candidates isn’t primarily based on how hard those candidates work, including at getting the attention of the fake news. It has more to do with whether the story can be spun to further the propaganda driven agenda spun by fake news spin. If it fits their preexisting narrative, it gets covered and becomes “news.”

    Of course, that’s hardly limited to just obscure candidates; it’s their general modus operandi. That is, after all, why they’re fake news. You’re either a handy prop for their spin, or you’re not useful and therefore not worth covering.

    Worse nutcase : Biden. Also AZ, and Kissinger. The others AZ mentioned weren’t and aren’t.

    Every combatant during the world wars was in a sense trying to wipe out those on the other side. War is ugly like that. Germany was, in fact, placed under crushing sanctions after the war, which is “wiping out” in one sense.

    As for today, you can find any number of Russophobes in the West openly calling for dismembering or otherwise wiping out Russia, beheading the Russian government, etc, etc. Nutcases would be those claiming that pointing it out is nutcase, as if it was some secret. Russia has been attacked from all directions many times. They’re used to it.

    Of course, people are fleeing commie states. People always flee commie states.

    Why does olde AZ spell it that way? I know he’s old, but that was centuries ago. He couldn’t be that old, because all those folks are dead now. Unless maybe he’s a vampire or something.

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