Independent filing period now open, nothing much yet happening

I kind of expected Dr. Willie Wilson to have his nomination petitions for U.S. Senator Dick Durbin's seat ready to go yesterday morning when this year's special, COVID-19 impacted filing period for independent candidates began.

So far, nothing.

The only independent filing that has so far shown up on the State Board of Elections website is that of Kody Czerwonka, of Mattoon, who has filed in the 110th Legislative District to challenge Republican Rep. Chris Miller, of Robinson.

But let me back up.

As FWIW readers know, or should know, getting on the ballot is not easy. And that's getting on the ballot as a Democrat or Republican. Trying to mount an independent campaign is, ordinarily, well-nigh impossible.

But, in this Year of Never-Ending Pandemic, the rules have changed.

On June 21 the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals denied the Illinois State Board of Election's motion to stay enforcement of the District Court's preliminary injunction in the case of Libertarian Party of Illinois v. Pritzker, 20-cv-2112. See, Libertarian Party of Illinois v. Cadigan, 2020 U.S. App. LEXIS 20161. I do not mean to oversimplify or trivialize the court's reasoning here, but I think it's safe to say that the ISBE's motion was denied in large part because the Board had basically agreed to all the terms in the injunction it was appealing.

So here are the one-time-only rules for this very strange year (2020 U.S. App. LEXIS 20161, *4-5):

(1) Plaintiff political parties [the Libertarians and the Greens] are permitted to nominate candidates without petitions in any race in which they had nominated a candidate in either 2016 or 2018, and the three individual candidates are permitted to appear on the ballot for any office they qualified for in 2016 or 2018 without a petition [none of these involving judicial offices];

(2) New political party and independent candidates not subject to item (1) are required to file nomination petitions signed by not less than 10% of the statutory minimum number required;

(3) Petition signers are permitted to affix their signatures to a petition electronically, by using a computer mouse, a stylus, or their finger; and

(4) The statutory petition filing deadline is moved from June 22, 2020, to [July 20, 2020]

I believe that this order would apply to wannabe independent Cook County judicial candidates. The above language strongly supports that conclusion.

However, an independent candidate seeking election to the Freeman vacancy on the Illinois Supreme Court, or either of the two 1st District Appellate Court vacancies, or any of the countywide Cook County Circuit Court vacancies, would have to come up with "only" 2,500 to 14,362 signatures. Lesser amounts would be needed to qualify for subcircuit vacancies, less even than the 1,000 required for the March primary -- but getting any signatures at all would be difficult in these unusual times. And, of course, if any candidates do file for any vacancies that now have only one, unopposed candidate on the November ballot, those candidates would find their petitions subject to extraordinary scrutiny.

Challenges to any nominating petitions that are filed will be due on July 27.