© 2024 NPR Illinois
The Capital's Community & News Service
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Green Party Candidates Won't Appear On Ballot

I Voted sticker roll
wikimedia
/
Wikimedia

  Candidates from the Illinois Green Party will not appear on the November ballot.

A federal judge Thursday denied the party reprieve from the state's election requirements for third parties.

The Green Party had sued, claiming the barriers for third parties are too onerous ... threatening the right to free speech and equal protection.

Scott Summers, the party's candidate for governor, says he's disappointed with the judge's ruling.

"We are very unfortunate in this country to have a two-party system, as far as I'm concerned," he said. "We all are hardwired for that as children, but it strangles democracy."

Illinois law requires third party slates collect five times as many voter signatures as Republicans and Democrats need to qualify to run for office.

Summers says the Greens did turn in more than the minimum five thousand required. But a challenge from Democrats put nearly half of the signatures in doubt.

Rather than fight over the signatures with elections authorities, the Green Party sued.

But a federal judge says the Green Party should have filed its lawsuit earlier in the election cycle, which would have given them more options for getting on the ballot.

Hannah covers state government and politics for Capitol News Illinois. She's been dedicated to the statehouse beat since interning at NPR Illinois in 2014, with subsequent stops at WILL-AM/FM, Law360, Capitol Fax and The Daily Line before returning to NPR Illinois in 2020 and moving to CNI in 2023.
Related Stories