This year, the Libertarian Party was the only group in Illinois that filed a ballot access petition for statewide office. Both the Democratic Party and the Republican Party have visited the State Board of Elections office to obtain a copy of the Libertarian petition. If no one challenges the petition, the Libertarian Party is on the ballot for its statewide nominees, because Illinois election officials don’t validate petitions in the absence of a challenge.

The deadline for challenges is the end of the day, Monday, July 18.

The purpose of looking at the petition is for potential challengers to decide whether to go ahead with a challenge. There is always a little bit of motivation for Republicans to challenge Libertarian petitions. This year there may be some motivation for the Democratic Party as well, because the Libertarian nominee for Secretary of State is Jesse White. The Libertarian Jesse White happens to have the same name as the outgoing Secretary of State, Jesse White, who is a Democrat and who has always been very popular in Illinois, always winning with over 60% of the vote ever since his first election. The Democratic Secretary of State is retiring, so assuming the Libertarians appear on the ballot, the only Jesse White on the statewide ballot will be Libertarian Jesse White.

Counterpunch has this very extensive and detailed account of Democratic Party attempts to limit voter choice on general elections, during this century.

The article is very interesting, but also lengthy. If Hawkins had wished, the article could have been made even longer if he had chosen to include instances from the 20th century, from 1936, 1940, 1948, 1976, and 1980.

Some Michigan voters have filed a lawsuit in state court to disqualify Ryan Kelley from public office. He is a Republican candidate for Governor. The primary is August 2. See this story. The lawsuit says the Fourteenth Amendment’s “insurrection” clause should disqualify him. He was arrested recently for his actions at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, but he has not been convicted and he says he did not enter the Capitol Building.

The case is Estes v Secretary of State, in the State Court of Appeals, 362168.