The Rock Island Argus, a daily newspaper in Illinois, editorializes here that the recent federal court decision invalidating one Illinois ballot access restriction may be just the beginning of improvements in that state’s ballot access laws.

Illinois badly needs ballot access reform. It is one of only eleven states that has no procedure for a group to become a qualified party in advance of any particular election. Its candidate petitions for district office, for both independents and the nominees of unqualified parties, are the second highest in the nation, after Georgia. Illinois is the only populous state in which it is common for half the legislative races to have only one candidate on the November ballot.