On July 21, as expected, the Illinois State Board of Elections ruled that Mayra Macias and Byron Sigcho-Lopez should not be on the ballot as independent candidates in the 4th U.S. House district. They each needed 10,816 valid signatures, and each submitted approximately twice that number, but they were challenged and found not to have enough. Thus continues the Illinois record, that no independent or minor party candidate for U.S. House who was challenged ever gets on the ballot. One must go back to 1974 to find an instance when such a petition was challenged for that office and validated. This sentence does not apply to election years that end in “two”, because in those years only 5,000 signatures are needed.