Green Party presidential nominee Dr. Jill Stein and Libertarian Party nominee Chase Oliver were blocked from appearing on the Illinois ballot by the Illinois State Board of Elections on Friday. Both candidates reportedly failed to submit the required minimum number of signatures.
A list of candidate objections maintained by the Illinois State Board of Elections indicates that the Green Party presidential ticket of Jill Stein and Samson Kpadenou—who served as a placeholder candidate before the selection of Butch Ware—was removed from the ballot on August 23. Similarly, Scott Schluter and Lex Greene, who acted as placeholder candidates for the Libertarian Party presidential ticket of Chase Oliver and Mike ter Maat, were also removed.
Stein and Oliver join three other candidates who were removed from the Illinois ballot earlier last month, including the Constitution Party ticket of Randall Terry and Stephen Broden, Greener Peace United candidate Christopher Cisco, and independent candidate Heather Lynn Stone. Neither Cisco nor Stone listed vice presidential candidates on their filing paperwork.
According to information from the State Journal-Register, both the Libertarian and Green Party presidential campaigns failed to collect the required 25,000 valid signatures needed to qualify.
Earlier coverage by the Chicago Tribune revealed that the challenges against the Stein campaign, as well as against the independent presidential campaign of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., were initiated by the Clear Choice Action super PAC, which has contested the validity of nominating petitions and paperwork for third party and independent presidential candidates on several instances this election cycle. Additionally, the Tribune reported that the challenges against the Oliver campaign, as well as the campaign of Randall Terry, were initiated by a staffer for the Chicago Republican Party.
Notably, independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Nicole Shanahan will still appear on the ballot at this time, surviving their ballot access challenge; however, Kennedy has since suspended his campaign. Challengers similarly alleged that Kennedy failed to collect enough valid signatures, although the Journal-Register also reports that it centered around claims he used a false address on his nomination papers.
The second was in Iowa’s third congressional district:
https://ballot-access.org/2024/08/11/iowa-republican-officials-challenge-ballot-access-for-libertarian-nominee-for-u-s-house/
https://ballot-access.org/2024/08/26/hearing-set-in-challenge-to-libertarian-u-s-house-nominee-in-iowa/
“challenges against the Oliver campaign, as well as the campaign of Randall Terry, were initiated by a staffer for the Chicago Republican Party”
Hmm, this is only the third time this election cycle that I hear of Republicans rather than Democrats trying to keep third parties or independents off the ballot. The first and biggest being Oregon. The second I can’t even remember anymore. And now this third instance being interesting because it is the Chicago Republican Party, not the Illinois Republican Party, spoiling things for the entire state of Illinois.
Well golly… that’s not so nice.