Following up on Richard Winger’s post yesterday about this bill, here is a commentary from the Illinois Policy Institute.
And, here is a link to my Chicago Tribune oped of July 10, 2023 on the ballot access barriers to third party and independent candidates in Illinois. All 118 Illinois House and 59 Illinois Senate seats were on the November 2022 ballot in Illinois. There were zero independent and zero third party candidates in all 177 of those elections.
On May 3, Illinois Governor J. B. Pritzker signed SB 2412, which eliminates the ability of qualified parties to nominate someone after the primary is over. The bill takes effect immediately.
The original bill had nothing to do with election law, but all of the contents of the original bill were erased on May 1. It passed the legislature in its new form on May 2 and was signed May 3. The bill appears to have been designed to block one particular Republican from being nominated in a legislative election this year.
There are many precedents that states cannot make ballot access more difficult in the middle of the qualification season, including one that was summarily affirmed by the U.S. Supreme Court, Hudler v Austin, in 1976.
ABC News has this story about Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.’s attempts to win minor party nominations. The story is incorrect when it says that the Alliance Party is ballot-qualified in Minnesota and that the Reform Party is on the ballot in Florida.
Also the story would have been better if it had explained that previous independent presidential candidates have followed the same strategy. In 1924 Robert La Follette, an independent progressive presidential candidate, won the nomination of the Socialist Party and the Farmer-Labor Party, which helped him with ballot access. He would not have been on in California without the Socialist Party nomination.
In 1968, George Wallace depended on the ballot-qualified Conservative Party to place him on the Kansas ballot. In 1980, John Anderson used the Liberal Party to gain access in New York. Ralph Nader in his 2004 and 2008 independent runs, depended on many one-state qualified parties. Lenora Fulani, in her two runs in 1988 and 1992, did as well. Even Theodore Roosevelt in 1912 was the nominee of the Republican Parties of California and South Dakota. The only person who was on the ballot in all states, in the last 100 years, who didn’t depend on a nomination by a previously qualified party, was Ross Perot in 1992.
The Wyoming Secretary of State has released May 2024 registration statistics. See the numbers here. No Labels has 14 registered members, whereas in the April 2024, it only had one member.
Percentages are: Republican 81.28%; Democratic 10.84%; Libertarian .48%; Constitution .16%; independent and other 7.24%.
In October 2023, the percentages had been: Republican 81.75%; Democratic 10.65%; Libertarian .46%; Constitution .15%; independent and other 6.99%.
On April 26, the West Virginia Secretary of State issued a new voter registration tally. See the figures here.
Percentages are: Republican 40.42%; Democratic 30.31%; Libertarian .91%; Green .22%; independent and other 28.14%.
On October 2023, the percentages were: Republican 39.86%; Democratic 31.49%; Libertarian .91%; Green .21%; independent and other 27.53%.
