A perennial candidate for public office is challenging Illinois’ signature requirements for gaining ballot access in elections, saying the requirements violate the U.S. Constitution.
If the lawsuit succeeds, it would drastically lower the bar for candidates in Illinois to get their names before voters in elections.
David Gill is a physician from Bloomington who previously lost a bid to represent Illinois’ 13th Congressional District in 2012 to Rep. Rodney Davis, a Republican from Taylorville. Gill ran as a Democrat in 2012, and he’s challenging Davis and Democrat Mark Wicklund of Decatur for the 13th District seat as an independent.
Gill is joined in his lawsuit for ballot access by a handful of voters spread across the 13th District who wish to vote for Gill in the Nov. 8 general election.
Gill filed a lawsuit (PDF) on Monday against the Illinois State Board of Elections, challenging the signature requirements for ballot access as unconstitutional and onerous. The Election Code calls for candidates not associated with an established political party to file signatures from between 5 percent and 8 percent of qualified voters in a given district who voted in the previous election.
In Gill’s case, that put the minimum requirement at 10,754 signatures. Gill filed about 11,350 signatures in June, but an objection filed by Jerrold Stocks of Mt. Zion, Illinois, resulted in all but 8,593 of Gill’s signatures being challenged as invalid. Gill is fighting to have his signatures declared valid, and the state election board is scheduled to meet on Aug. 26 to rule on that battle.
In the meantime, Gill wants a federal court to toss the state’s signature requirements. In his lawsuit filed Monday in the U.S. District Court in Springfield, Gill says that no independent candidate for the U.S. House in Illinois history has ever overcome the requirement of 10,754 or more signatures, and since 1890, only three candidates in the entire country have done so.
“Only one candidate for the U.S. House has ever overcome a general election signature requirement of 8,593 or more in Illinois, and that was H. Douglas Lassiter in the 15th Congressional District in 1974,” the complaint says.
Gill makes several arguments against the requirements in the Election Code, including that the notarization requirement violates the First Amendment and the Fourteenth Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause. Gill, who is represented by Springfield attorney and former city alderman Sam Cahnman, argues that the requirements impose on independent candidates an unfair burden which established party candidates don’t face. Enforcement of the signature requirements is “haphazard,” Gill says, because it depends solely on whether a voter in the relevant district objects to the signatures.
The complaint notes that only three states have signature barriers over 10,000 for U.S. House races and claims that Gill’s 8,593 uncontested signatures would be enough to get him on the ballot in 385 – 88.5 percent – of the 435 U.S. House districts.
Gill is asking the federal court to declare that Illinois’ 5 percent minimum signature requirement is unconstitutional and enter a preliminary injunction and permanent order against the Illinois State Board of Elections from enforcing the requirement. Gill is also asking the court to require that the board put his name on the Nov. 8 general election ballot.
Ken Menzel, general counsel for the Illinois State Board of Elections, says someone brings a similar challenge to the signature requirements every election cycle, and so far, the requirements have always been upheld in court.
Cahnman refuted that, pointing to a decision in the 2013 special election to replace resigned congressman Jesse Jackson Jr. Courts have held that in special elections with shortened time to collect signatures, the number of signatures required must be reduced proportionally.
“There have been plenty of times courts struck down signature requirements,” Cahnman said.
Menzel says signature requirements are in place so that candidates must show a reasonable level of support in order to secure a place on the ballot. He points to California’s 2003 recall election, in which there were 135 candidates on the ballot. Menzel adds that the ballot in Cook County for the Nov. 8 election is already two pages long.
“It’s a challenge to get all those offices and all the referenda on the ballot,” Menzel said. “There’s got to be a gatekeeper.”
Contact Patrick Yeagle at pyeagle@illinoistimes.com.
This article appears in Jul 28 – Aug 3, 2016.
