On December 3, Illinois called a special election in the 14th Congressional district. All petitions are due on December 17. The primary for the Democratic, Republican and Green Parties will be February 5. The general election is on March 8, a Saturday.
Independent candidates, and the nominees of unqualified parties, need 9,995 signatures. Since the election was called only two weeks before the due date for this petition, it is wholly unfair to expect anyone to collect that many valid signatures within the confines of a single U.S. House district in less than two weeks.
The 4th and 11th circuits have ruled in the past that when the normal petitioning period is shrunk, due to the time constraints of a special election, that states must shrink the number of signatures proportionally. However, the Illinois State Board of Elections has indicated that if any independent or unqualified party nominee desires to obtain a place on the ballot, he or she must sue them to get this type of relief. The normal Illinois petitioning period is 90 days. 14 divided by 90 equals a fraction that, if applied to the requirement, would yield 2,172 signatures.
The vacancy was caused by the resignation of J. Dennis Hastert, who represents a district centered on the cities of Elgin, Aurora and DeKalb.
Add the week that they will probably to process the petition.
That should be petition request.
It’s cool to see, but there are several more Green candidates acknowledged by the GPUS who appear on different state ballots including: Elaine Brown, Kat Swift, Jesse Johnson, and Ohio’s “Average Joe”.
and Ralph Nader. Ralph Nader does already appear on the California ballot; since this is a California based poll, it’s a little odd that not all the California slate is listed on the site.