Free and Equal, Inc., Appearing at Board of Elections Hearings to Defend Candidate Petitions
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Christina Tobin
Phone: 312-320-4101
Email: Christina@freeandequalinc.com
Website: https://www.freeandequalinc.com/
Free and Equal, Inc., Appearing at Board of Elections Hearings to Defend Candidate Petitions
Free and Equal, Inc. will file a Freedom of Information Act request today as part of its effort to defend the right of three candidates to be on the Illinois ballot in 2010.
State House candidates Deb Leticia Gordils (District 11), Phil Collins (District 17), and Anita Forte-Scott (District 56), will be going before state and local election officials to defend the validity of the nominating petitions they circulated to get their names on the state election ballot.
A hearing for Gordils will be held at 1 p.m. today before the Chicago Board of Election Commissioners at 69 West Washington St. in the lower level conference room.
Forte-Scott, meanwhile, is slated to state her case before the State Officers Electoral Board at 10:30 a.m. on Nov. 17 in the Thompson Center, 100 W Randolph St. in room 9-040. There will be a video connection with the State Board office at 1020 S. Spring St. in Springfield.
The hearing for Collins is scheduled for Nov. 18 at 10:30 a.m. at the Cook County Board of Elections at 69 West Washington St. in Chicago.
To run for State House in Illinois, candidates must collect 500 signatures of registered voters. Gordils and Collins submitted over 600 signatures each, while Forte-Scott submitted over 900.
Attempts to challenge the petitions for each of these candidates can allegedly be linked to Kevin Artl, who is the Chief of Staff for Illinois House Minority Leader Tom Cross. Artl, however, has denied that he has anything to do with the challenges.
“These challenges are aimed to ensure that only candidates who will help keep Cross in power can appear on the ballot,” said Christina Tobin, Chief Executive Officer of Free and Equal, Inc.
The Freedom of Information Act request by Free and Equal will seek to uncover Artl’s payroll for the petition-checkers used to challenge these candidates. This information will help determine if state and Republican Party employees were used to check these petitions.
If true, these efforts raise serious questions about the use of government employees in a campaign capacity.
“The only reason the current Illinois GOP power base would pay money to selectively copy petitions of these principled, conservative candidates is to see if they could knock these honorable people off the ballot,” said Jim Edwards, Executive Director of the Republican Renaissance PAC, which hired Free and Equal to help defend Gordils and Forte-Scott.
“The voters of Illinois deserve the chance to vote for whomever they please,” said Tobin. “It is essential to the health of our democracy that the selection of elected representatives take place at the ballot box and not in the halls of a boards of elections riddled with corruption. We look forward to defending the signatures of these candidates, and anticipate seeing them on the primary ballot.”
Free and Equal, Inc. is headed by ballot-access crusader Christina Tobin. Tobin has helped secure ballot lines for numerous independent candidates and alternative political parties, including the Constitution, Democratic, Green, Libertarian, Republican and Socialist Equality parties. As Ralph Nader’s National Ballot Access Coordinator in 2008, she helped collect more than 500,000 signatures to put Nader on 45 state presidential ballots and the District of Columbia, more than any other third party or independent candidate.
In 2004, Tobin sued Democratic Party State Chair Michael Madigan for allegedly using full-time state employees to knock Ralph Nader off of the presidential ballot. A Freedom of Information Act request was submitted for the payroll in question. The FOIA request was denied in court because it was “confidential information.” A complaint filed by Ralph Nader was submitted to attorney general Lisa Madigan, daughter of Michael Madigan. As of yet, five years later, no action on the complaint has been taken.
Free and Equal, Inc. is a full-service, ballot-access consulting and petitioning firm. Free and Equal, Inc. is a nonpartisan firm that works with candidates from across the political spectrum. Free and Equal, Inc. does not endorse any candidates for office.
FREE AND EQUAL, INC. SPECIALIZES IN DEFENDING NOMINATING PETITIONS AGAINST CHALLENGES.
TOBIN AND THE STAFF OF FREE AND EQUAL, INC ARE AVAILABLE IMMEDIATELY TO DEFEND SIGNATURES IN ILLINOIS.
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Free & Equal, Inc. is a full-service ballot access consulting and petitioning firm specializing in ballot access for independent and third party candidates.
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