- To run for President in the primary in Illinois, Republicans and Democrats need 3,000 signatures. To run for
statewide races (Governor, Lt. Governor, Treasurer, Secretary of State, Comptroller, and US Senate) Republicans and Democrats
need 5,000 signatures. New parties (Green, Constitution, Socialist Equality, Libertarians, etc.) need 25,000 signatures to
put a "slate" of candidates on the general election ballot. A "slate" means their petitions include all their candidates for
statewide offices and gets them all on the ballot. An independent candidate needs 25,000 signatures to be on the general
election ballot for statewide office.
- For US House, Republicans and Democrats needed an average of 782 signatures to get on the primary ballot. This is
different for each District and we'll provide a link to that info later. Independents and new party candidates need an
average of 14,080 signatures.
- For Illinois State Senate, Republicans and Democrats need 1,000 signatures. New party candidates need an average of
3,110 (5% of the votes cast in the last election) and independents need an average of 6,220 signatures (10%).
- For Illinois State Representative, Republicans and Democrats need 500 signatures. New party candidates need an
average of 2,267 (5%) and independents need 4,534 (10%) on average.
- Note: The requirements for independents for State Senate and State Representative (the General Assembly) was just
ruled unconstitutional in the Lee v. Keith case.
- We should also point out that Republicans and Democrats can place candidates on the general election ballot without
getting any signatures if no one runs in their primary for that office. In 2006, the Republicans and Democrats placed more
than 30 candidates on the ballot without having to get one signature.
- Now we'll try to take you through the convoluted Illinois election law to give you a better idea what it takes for
candidates to get on the ballot. Before we jump into numbers though, we need to explain the differences between candidates.
- Illinois election law identifies three types of candidates; established party, new party, and independent candidates.
Established party candidates are typically the Republicans and Democrats. New Party candidates would be any political party
that didn't get 5% of the vote in the last election, but more on that later. Independents are not affiliated with a party.
- To be an established party for every partisan race in the state that party's candidate has to get 5% of the vote for
Governor.
- To be an established party for only the statewide races, that party's candidate has to get 5% for one the statewide
races other than Governor. (Statewide races are the elections for Governor/Lt. Governor, Attorney General, Secretary of
State, Treasurer, Comptroller, US Senate, and President.)
- To be an established party for individual districts that party's candidate has to get 5% in the election for that
district.
- To give you an example of how that works, let's use the Green Party since they have statewide candidates on the
ballot this year. If Rich Whitney, Green candidate for Governor in 2006, gets 5% of the vote in this election, the Green
Party will be considered an established party for every partisan race in the state for the next election. So in 2008, the
Green Party could run candidates for any partisan election using the lower requirements that the Republicans and Democrats
currently have. Getting 5% for Governor is how a "new" party can become an "established" party for the entire state of
Illinois.
- What happens if Rich Whitney does not get 5% for Governor, but the Green Party candidate for Secretary of State,
Karen Young, does get more than 5% of the vote? The Greens would not be "established" for every partisan race if that
happened, but they would be "established" for statewide races only in 2008.
- New parties can also become established in individual districts if they get 5% of the vote in that race. So, for
example, if a Constitution Party candidate for State Representative in District 11 got 5% of the vote this year, in 2008 a
Constitution Party candidate can use the lower requirements for an established party.
- Does that make sense? In our defense, we didn't make these confusing rules and we want to change them.
- An established party candidate, currently only Republicans and Democrats, needs to collect 5,000 valid petition
signatures in 90 days to have their name on the primary election ballot for the statewide races, except for the Presidential
primary where the requirement is only 3,000. In the primary, they run against candidates from their own party to determine
who gets to be their party's representative on the general election ballot. Those valid petition signatures are due in
December the year prior to the election. For the election in November 2006, they had to be turned in during December 2005.
- New party and independent candidates need to collect 25,000 valid signatures in 90 days to have their candidates for
statewide races put on the general election ballot. New parties can not have primary elections so they have to use another
method to decide who will represent them. Those 25,000 valid signatures let a new party place a candidate in each statewide
race. For 2006, those were Governor/Lt. Governor, Attorney General, Secretary of State, Treasurer, and Comptroller.
Independent candidates are independent, so 25,000 valid signatures only qualify them for one statewide race.
- The deadline for statewide independent candidates is the same deadline as for the established parties, which is
December of the year prior to the election. (That deadline for independents was just ruled unconstitutional in the Lee v.
Keith case, and it is the earliest deadline in the US.) The deadline for new parties is in June the year of the election. For
the November 2006 election, that deadline was in June 2006.
- Here we'll point out what valid signatures are. If a candidate's signatures are challenged, like the Democrats did to
the Greens in 2006, those signatures are checked versus their signature on their voter registration card and their names are
also checked to make sure they are registered to vote. It is common for people to sign a petition who aren't registered to
vote, like college students as an example. Sometimes people move without re-registering and put their new address down.
Sometimes people plan to register before the election but they don't. There are a number of reasons for a signature not to be
valid.
- Because some signatures will not be valid, candidates need to collect more than the required number of signatures.
Typically, somewhere between 60% and 80% of the signatures will be valid, so many candidates try to get double the number of
signatures required just to be safe. That means for 25,000 valid signatures you really need to collect at least 40,000
signatures to have a good chance of getting on the ballot.
- 40,000 signatures is a big number so how does that translate into time and effort. Well, they have 90 days to get
those signatures, which is 445 signatures per day. Going door to door, 10 signatures per hour is a pretty average rate.
Petitioning at events or places with large numbers of people walking by, you can get 25 signatures an hour. Using an average
of 20 signatures per hour, it would take 2,000 hours to get 40,000 signatures, or over 22 hours per day. Needless to say, you
can't go it alone to get on the ballot.
- Established parties only need 5,000 valid signatures for the statewide races and can usually get by collecting 8,000
signatures. That's 400 hours over 90 days, or 4.5 hours per day.
- Notice independents and new parties need to spend 2,000 hours just getting on the ballot versus 400 for new parties.
That gives the new parties and independents a distinct disadvantage since it basically gives them a 1,600 hour hole before
they are even on the ballot. They could use that time to campaign instead of collect signatures, and 1,600 hours of volunteer
time is hard to come by.
Contact FREE at (312) 320-4101 or email freeandequal@gmail.com
We look forward to your involvement! Keep checking back for updates and news!
We want you to have a choice. |
