From Mark Wachtler at Opposition News:
Next month, municipalities in Illinois will hold Elections to choose Mayors, city officials and City Council members. In Chicago, 5 Mayoral candidates were kicked off the ballot leaving 4 to run against Mayor Emanuel. In the races for Chicago’s 50 City Council seats, there are currently 198 candidates with 33 of them still fighting challenges to their ballot access petitions. 33 have already been removed from the ballot, including the Green Party’s lone candidate and a PSL leader whose been campaigning for over a year.
2015 Chicago municipal Election – Feb 24, 2015
As detailed two weeks ago by Opposition News’ sister publication in Chicago, the Illinois Herald, there were two official opposition candidates running for seats on Chicago’s City Council. The Election is non-partisan, meaning there are no Party labels. It’s much like the Top Two system in that all Parties’ candidates run against each other in the first round, with the top two facing each other in a run-off election if nobody captures 50% or more of the vote the first time around.
And while some candidates often keep their political affiliation secret when running, others proudly proclaim their Party loyalty. Two of those candidates were the Green Party’s Alberto Bocanegra running for Alderman of Chicago’s 15th Ward. The other was John Beacham, a local leader of the Party for Socialism and Liberation and a candidate for 49th Ward Alderman. Both men have just been removed from the Election ballot by the Chicago Board of Elections.
Read the full article here.
Thanks Richard. I was going to make the same point and then got busy offline. I just replied to him copying your comment at https://www.facebook.com/IndependentPoliticalReport . All our stories also get posted there, and it doesn’t get nearly as many comments as they do here, but sometimes it does get some and it’s different people. You can talk to him on there also if you go to this same story.
Mark Wachtler says the Chicago election system is “much like” a top-two system. I wish I could communicate with him that he has missed a key difference. In Chicago, the first round is an election. An “election” is an event that can actually elect someone. In Chicago, if someone gets 50% or more, he or she is elected. But in a top-two system, the first round is not an election because no one can be elected at it. Even if someone gets 100% of the vote, he or she is not elected and must run again. In a top-two system, the first round is nothing but a ballot access barrier to the election itself.