Daniel Kleeman: Third Parties Getting the Shaft

The election laws in the state of Illinois are not a topic that is discussed often outside of college courses or political organizations, but their effect on political discourse in Illinois is far-reaching.

Though many of the regulations are sensible and beneficial such as a regulation forbidding a candidate from running for two offices that might conflict with one another, the ballot access laws, according to Crystal Jurczynski, Campaign Coordinator for the Libertarian Party of Illinois, “are tools used by the politically powerful to eliminate competitors when they can and drain them of resources when they cannot. These laws subvert the democratic process, waste taxpayer dollars, and keep good people from entering public service.” These election laws are written by two supposedly “rival” parties to limit the amount of competition available. The way they do this is quite simple.

For a candidate to appear on a ballot, they need to submit a petition with a certain amount of signatures. This is sensible as there must be some standard. However, the amount of signatures required is telling.

In Illinois this amounts to five percent of the available electorate for third party candidates. This number appears deceptively low to the uninformed. In reality, it translates into signature requirements of up to 26,903 signatures, a burden not shared by the two mainstream parties.

According to Jurczynski, the minimum amount of signatures required for Republican or Democratic is five to 10 times less than the amount of signatures required for third party or independent candidates. Quite often, third party and independent candidates will have their signatures challenged by local government officials in a manner that is unlike the treatment of signatures collected for the Republicans and Democrats. In practice, this means more signatures are required.

Read the full article here.