My thanks to the candidates for the Prairie du Pont Levee and Sanitary District

These individuals got to the Illinois State Board of Elections after the cutoff for the 8:00 filing -- and they were the first I found scanning through the latest list of filings supplied by the ISBE.

This is important because it means that the ISBE is now posting non-lottery candidates.

For those who came in late: Today is the first day on which candidates -- including judicial candidates -- may file for the March 20, 2012 primary. All the judicial candidates (or their surrogates, if they have them) must make the pilgrimage to Springfield to file their papers. All the candidates line up in the street outside the Board. The line was well advanced by the wee small hours of this morning. All who were in line as of 8:00, when the Board of Elections officially began accepting nominating petitions, was deemed to have filed at 8:00 sharp. Only those candidates who file right at 8:00am are eligible for the lottery to determine the initial ballot position.

There may be -- likely will be -- other candidates filing in Cook County judicial races after this morning. There is sometimes a boomlet in filings on the last day of filing (this year, December 5); these persons jockey to be listed last on the ballot in their particular race. But we now have a much clearer picture of who wants to run for what; I'll be talking about who the would-be candidates are in posts starting later today.

Please note: Filing is just the beginning of the process of getting on the ballot. A small army of petition checkers has descended on Springfield today. Supporters of Candidate A are looking to see if Candidates B and C have complied with all of the many, detailed requirements for ballot qualification. Are all the signatures valid? When questionable signatures are tossed out, will the candidate still have enough to remain on the ballot? There will be a number of objections to judicial nominating petitions filed; these, too, will be covered here on FWIW.