Illinois has 18 U.S. House seats. This year, there are three independent candidates on the ballot for U.S. House in Illinois. Three is not a big number, but it is the largest number of independent candidates on the ballot for U.S. House from Illinois since 1920, when there were also three.

Independent candidate ballot access in Illinois improved in 2007, as a result of the lawsuit Lee v Keith. That lawsuit struck down the December (of the year before the election) deadline for non-presidential independent candidates. Also, in years following redistricting, the number of signatures for an independent is exactly 5,000, whereas in other election years it is 5% of the last vote cast, which is typically between 10,000 and 18,000 signatures.

The three independents on the ballot are Marcus Lewis in the 2nd district, John Monaghan in the 7th district, and John Hartman in the 13th district. The Marcus Lewis campaign is considered strong, because the Democratic nominee in the 2nd district is Jesse Jackson, Jr., who has been absent from Congress for several months due to illness. Here is a story about Jesse Jackson, Jr. Here is a story about independent candidate John Hartman, who has been polling at 9% even though, according to the story, he has barely campaigned, other than circulating his own petition earlier in the year.

Illinois also has two minor party candidates for U.S. House on the ballot this year. They are both Green nominees: Nancy Wade in the 5th district, and Paula Bradshaw in the 12th district.

Here is a link to the Tennessee Elections office list of candidates for November, for all federal and state office. The list is somewhat historic because this is the first time minor party candidates, with their party name, have been listed in Tennessee since 1972. For elections 1974 through 2010, many minor party candidates appeared on the Tennessee general election ballot, but none of them had their party label on the ballot. Instead they were all labeled “independent.” This is because independent candidate ballot access has been so easy in Tennessee, whereas the procedure for a newly-qualifying party has been so difficult that it hasn’t been used since 1968. The American Party qualified in 1968 and remained on the ballot through 1972.

The reason the Constitution and Green Parties are on the ballot this year is because of the lawsuit won in February 2012, called Green Party of Tennessee v Hargett.

It is true that in 2000, various Green, Libertarian and Reform Party nominees were permitted to have their party label on the November ballot, under a law that only applied to the year 2000. But in 2000, all those minor party candidates were still listed in the independent column, and were considered to be independent candidates by the state. This year, the Green and Constitution Parties have their own party columns, in the counties that use party column ballots.

Ballot Access News
August 1, 2012 – Volume 28, Number 3

1. AMERICANS ELECT NATIONAL OFFICE SHUTDOWN LEAVES CONTROL OF BALLOT LINES WITH IN-STATE ACTIVISTS
2. MISSOURI BALLOT ACCESS BILL SIGNED
3. NORTH CAROLINA BILL DEFEATED
4. CALIFORNIA BILL IS DEFEATED, WOULD HAVE HURT ACCESS
5. SAN FRANCISCO INSTANT RUNOFF VOTING SURVIVES
6. BALLOT ACCESS LAWSUIT NEWS
7. OTHER LAWSUIT NEWS
8. GREEN PARTY PRESIDENTIAL CONVENTION VOTE
9. 2012 PETITIONING FOR PRESIDENT
10. PARTIES NOT ON PETITIONING CHART
11. GREEN PARTY NATIONAL CONVENTION
12. GARY JOHNSON RECEIVES MORE MATCHING FUNDS
13. JUSTICE PARTY NOMINATES FOR VICE-PRESIDENT
14. KANSAS REFORM PARTY
15. COFOE MEETING
16. SUBSCRIBING TO BAN WITH PAYPAL
    

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