Illinois Board of Elections Violates its Own Rules
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Christina Tobin Phone: 312-320-4101 Email: Christina@freeandequalinc.com Website: https://www.freeandequalinc.com/
Illinois Board of Elections Violates its Own Rules
When a political machine wants a candidate off the ballot in Illinois, the odds are heavily stacked against the candidate. The process of objecting to a candidate’s petitions has only one purpose: to allow only machine-sanctioned candidates on the ballot.
Even when a candidate does everything right, plays by the rules and survives a challenge, the machine can simply change the rules on a whim.
This is happening in the case of William “Dock” Walls, III, a Democratic candidate for Governor. Walls submitted almost 10,000 signatures from Illinois voters to gain ballot access. The requirement is 5,000 valid signatures.
The political operatives connected to incumbent Governor Pat Quinn then went to work and claimed over half of the signatures Walls submitted were invalid.
Andrew Spiegel, an attorney with Free and Equal, Inc., challenged this claim. In response, the Board unilaterally decided to recount all the official numbers, including the total number of signatures submitted by the Walls campaign.
In a letter to the Board, Spiegel noted, “Rules and Procedures adopted by the Board require that Official numbers not properly and specifically challenged by either party are considered to be valid.”
Spiegel also stated, “If the Board violates its Rules of Procedure in this one case, and arbitrarily recounts the total number sustained, this board must recount all official numbers for all current cases.”
When asked to comment, Spiegel said, “This Kafkaesque objection process in Illinois is reminiscent of the Guardian Council run by the Ayatollahs in Iran. Perhaps President Obama should consider sending troops to Illinois.”
Walls added, “The Board of Elections has a responsibility to provide a candidate with an accurate official tally. They cannot legally review numbers on a whim. That behavior is either incompetent or corrupt. The Board of Elections is doing a great disservice to all the good people who signed our petitions.”
According to Christina Tobin, Chief Executive Officer of Free and Equal, Inc., even the newly revised numbers from the Board of Elections are inaccurate.
Depending on which rules the Board wants to follow, Walls either has 60 signatures more than he needs, or will be 127 signatures short.
The next hearing, at 2 p.m. Thursday on the 14th floor of the Thompson Center at 100 W. Randolph St. in Chicago, will put the Board of Elections to the test. Do rules matter any more in Illinois, or can they just make up new rules whenever it suits their machine bosses? The next hearing will answer this question.
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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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