Free & Equal Inc.: Circus of petition challenges in Illinois

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Monday, June 28 2010, was the last day for filing objections to candidate petition signatures in Illinois for the November election. There were 81 objections filed with the Illinois State Board of Elections by 22 different objectors against a number of candidates. Christina Tobin, CEO of Free & Equal Inc., today responded to those petition challenges filed to kick candidates off the ballot for the Illinois election this November.

“All of the people who filed objections to candidate petitions should immediately disclose to the voters of Illinois why they are holding up ballot access for these candidates,” said Christina Tobin. “The private challenge system Illinois has is bad enough without the circus of objections that were filed yesterday. The voters deserve an explanation for these objections and more transparency from the challengers.”

“Numerous petition challenges through recent years have turned out to be frivolous wastes of scarce government resources. We intend to expose those challengers who are not playing fair,” said Tobin. “Illinois saw pointless petition challenges during the last two races for state officers. They are about to see the same insanity happen again in 2010.”

In 2006, Green Party candidate for Governor Rich Whitney and the Greens’ statewide slate withstood a petition challenge that was found to be unwarranted. Gubernatorial candidate Cal Skinner and his Libertarian Party slate also made it on the ballot in 2002 after a senseless challenge.

According to the Illinois State Board of Elections website, there were 81 objections filed against independent and new party candidates during this filing period. Sharon Ann Meroni of Barrington Hills filed 32 objections, Rob Sherman of Buffalo Grove filed 13 objections, Andrew Heffernan of Stickney filed 11 objections, Thomas P. Dunaway and Ella White from Chicago filed 5 objections, and Phillip Hunt of Oak Park, Robert R. Slover of Peoria Heights, and Blake Phillip Sercye of Chicago each filed two objections. An additional 14 other objectors filed one challenge each.

“Independent and alternative party candidates should be held to the same standard as the established parties of simply 5,000 signatures, instead of the 25,000 Illinois state law requires of them,” said Tobin. “We are going to expose the challengers taking advantage of the discrimination inherent in our election laws.”

“With that many challenges filed this year, close to a million signatures, if not more, will have to be verified over the coming weeks and months, all at a significant cost to the taxpayers”, said Tobin. “The drain to government budgets could well reach into the millions.”

“These objectors are taking advantage of a flawed and unfair system,” said Tobin. “Rod Blagojevich and George Ryan used petition challenges to favor themselves politically. We know petition challenges are not immune to abuse. The objectors should come clean about their intentions immediately.”

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 29th, 2010 at 4:42 am. It is filed under Free & Equal, Illinois, Litigation. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.