Nomination for Mayor of Chicago requires collecting at least 12,500 valid signatures from registered voters in the City of Chicago. The deadline for filing signatures is November 22nd.

Last year, Free & Equal Inc. collected signatures for 14 candidates running in the primary for various offices in the State of Illinois. Of those, nine survived the notoriously corrupt challenge process, four did not, and one withdrew to run as an independent.

Free & Equal Inc.’s sister organization, The Free and Equal Elections Foundation, is working to replace the outdated, confusing and arbitrary challenge process with a $500 filing fee in lieu of signatures. Filing fees are used successfully in many states, generating revenue rather than draining public coffers with labor-intensive petition reviews and challenges. At least one Illinois state legislator has expressed interest in sponsoring such a bill.

Bill Brady’s niece, Brittany, blogged about her experience working on the petition challenge of the Libertarian Party candidate’s filing. Brady’s niece Brittany locked her blog, but we have it saved in an effort to keep Illinois politicians honest. Apparently, Brittany didn’t like the petition challenge experience much.

“I did not know that I would be doing this. I did not wake up this morning and say to myself, “how I wish I could verify petitions later this afteroon.” And after an hour or two at this job, I am now very positive that thought will never run across my mind in my life. It is painful, torturous work.”

Thank you Brittany, for telling the truth there. The title of the blog post is “Is it normal to start talking to people in your head that you don’t even know?”

Where did Brady’s niece Brittany get the idea to go work on a petition challenge? Apparently its all in the family.

“My cousin is here too, he is the one who got me into this whole mess. He called me while I was waiting for a press conference to be done and told me to get over to this building right away and to bring anyone I could.”

On June 21, 2010, John Fogarty bought a copy of the Libertarian Party candidate’s petitions at the State Board of Elections. Who paid the hundreds of dollars for those copies? Is John Fogarty, a lawyer, working pro bono for Andrew Heffernan, or is Andrew Heffernan paying Fogarty for it? As they say, follow the money.

“We have Bill Brady’s niece Brittany, Brittany’s cousin, John Fogarty, and Andrew Heffernan all working together on a petition challenge that would remove the Libertarian Party candidates from the ballot,” said Christina Tobin CEO of Free and Equal, Inc., a ballot access company founded in Chicago. “I don’t see where Andrew Heffernan has started a political committee in Illinois to account for his efforts and work on behalf of Bill Brady. So I have to ask if Brady and his operatives are donating their efforts to Heffernan, or if Heffernan is donating his efforts to Brady”

“Either way that should show up on Bill Brady’s campaign finance reports or Andrew Heffernan’s tax returns,” said Tobin. “I hope the Illinois Attorney General, the US Attorney’s office, and the IRS are paying attention to this. This is obviously campaign work and it must be accounted for, especially in a state with Illinois’ history of political corruption. Bill Brady and his Republican operatives should withdraw their expensive petition challenges today.”

Jim Anderson News Director for the Illinois Radio Network interviewed Christina Tobin for his syndicated half hour “Eye on Illinois” about Illinois election laws recently. Tobin discussed the difficulties candidates face getting on the ballot and solutions like a filing fee system, instant run-off voting, and proportional representation.

“Illinois needs to get rid of these private petition challenges that invite funny business and needless costs to taxpayers”, said Tobin. “Instituting a filing fee system for candidates to be on the ballot makes much more sense for everyone in Illinois.”

The debate will take place in the Cordell Reed Student Union Building of Chicago State University, located at 9501 S. King Drive in Chicago, IL. Sponsoring the debate will be the Student Government Association, African American Male Resource Center, Latino Resource Center, and Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Incorporated.

Bill Brady (Republican Party), Scott Cohen (Independent), Lex Green (Libertarian Party), Pat Quinn (Democratic Party), William Walls III (Independent), Michael White (Constitution Party), and Rich Whitney (Green Party) have all been invited to share their message with Illinois voters.

Free & Equal is committed to giving all qualified candidates an equal voice in the debate. All invited candidates recently submitted petitions sufficient to qualify for the ballot.

“Until recently, Illinois has not seen a truly inclusive debate since Libertarian Robin Miller joined Al Salvi (R) and Dick Durbin (D) for a three way debate for U.S. Senate in 1996,” said Free & Equal Founder and Chair Christina Tobin. “Salvi and Durbin were brave enough to face a bigger and broader debate. I challenge Pat Quinn and Bill Brady to live up to their example, show some backbone and debate all serious contenders.

“Article III, Section 3 of the Illinois Constitution says ‘All Elections Shall Be Free And Equal’. Whoever is elected Governor will take an oath to uphold that Constitution, and we expect them to live up to that core principle of democracy starting today,” continued Tobin. “Illinois needs new and diverse ideas today more than ever.”

In his short ruling issued July 1, Judge Jerry Baxter stated, “The court finds, at this time, there is no actual controversy … and the ends of justice do not warrant a declaratory judgment.”

Norwood, who is attempting to gather some 23,000 signatures to qualify as an Independent on the ballot to run against Eaves for the Fulton County Commission chair post, filed suit last week after Eaves and his attorneys challenged “several thousand” of the signatures she has obtained.

My Fox Atlanta has a nice story with video about Mary Norwood’s continuing efforts to run for office in Georgia as an independent. Free & Equal Inc. is excited to be the national company working toward ballot access for Mary Norwood.

Norwood’s opponent in the race is current commission chair John Eaves and he contends that the forms Norwood is using to collect signatures aren’t legal.

Norwood is now asking a judge to rule on the matter.

It will take 22,000 signatures for the former mayoral candidate to make it onto the ballot as an Independent.
…
Norwood has paid $50,000 to hire a national company to collect signatures and she says she’s confident she’ll get the number she needs.

Here are two more good articles following Mary Norwood and her hard campaigning.

Atlanta Progressive News, “Eaves Questions 9,000 Norwood Signatures for Ballot Access”.

Norwood has hired Free and Equal, a petition signature-gathering firm,

Neighbor Newspapers, “Norwood halfway to November ballot”.

To obtain the balance of signatures she needs, Ms. Norwood said her campaign hired Raleigh, N.C.-based Free and Equal Inc., specializing in helping “independent candidates acquiring ballot access.”

“All of the people who filed objections to candidate petitions should immediately disclose to the voters of Illinois why they are holding up ballot access for these candidates,“ said Christina Tobin. “The private challenge system Illinois has is bad enough without the circus of objections that were filed yesterday. The voters deserve an explanation for these objections and more transparency from the challengers.“

“Numerous petition challenges through recent years have turned out to be frivolous wastes of scarce government resources. We intend to expose those challengers who are not playing fair,“ said Tobin. “Illinois saw pointless petition challenges during the last two races for state officers. They are about to see the same insanity happen again in 2010.“

In 2006, Green Party candidate for Governor Rich Whitney and the Greens’ statewide slate withstood a petition challenge that was found to be unwarranted. Gubernatorial candidate Cal Skinner and his Libertarian Party slate also made it on the ballot in 2002 after a senseless challenge.

According to the Illinois State Board of Elections website, there were 81 objections filed against independent and new party candidates during this filing period. Sharon Ann Meroni of Barrington Hills filed 32 objections, Rob Sherman of Buffalo Grove filed 13 objections, Andrew Heffernan of Stickney filed 11 objections, Thomas P. Dunaway and Ella White from Chicago filed 5 objections, and Phillip Hunt of Oak Park, Robert R. Slover of Peoria Heights, and Blake Phillip Sercye of Chicago each filed two objections. An additional 14 other objectors filed one challenge each.

“Independent and alternative party candidates should be held to the same standard as the established parties of simply 5,000 signatures, instead of the 25,000 Illinois state law requires of them,” said Tobin. “We are going to expose the challengers taking advantage of the discrimination inherent in our election laws.“

“With that many challenges filed this year, close to a million signatures, if not more, will have to be verified over the coming weeks and months, all at a significant cost to the taxpayers“, said Tobin. “The drain to government budgets could well reach into the millions.“

“These objectors are taking advantage of a flawed and unfair system,” said Tobin. “Rod Blagojevich and George Ryan used petition challenges to favor themselves politically. We know petition challenges are not immune to abuse. The objectors should come clean about their intentions immediately.”

The email started with a shocking admission by Illinois Republicans that they intend to challenge candidates’ petitions based on the potential political impact it will have on their party rather than Republicans acting in the best interests of the voters or the principles behind democratic elections:

“The Illinois GOP is diverting all efforts to challenge those candidates’ petitions that may have a negative impact on OUR Republican nominees (it is our belief that these candidates will steal votes from Republicans.)”

“The email the Cook County Republicans put out shows a complete disregard for Illinois voters and our American democracy,” said Christina Tobin. “The tradition in Illinois of knocking political competition off the ballot is more reminiscent of what we saw in the former Soviet Union than what our country’s founders intended. Illinois Republicans should be ashamed of themselves for engaging in this anti-democratic activity.”

In 1998, The Chicago Tribune reported that 73 state employees worked for Republican George Ryan’s campaign on a petition challenge that knocked the Libertarian Party candidates off the ballot. Their report also showed 19 state employees were still on the taxpayer clock while working on the challenge. George Ryan went on the defeat Glen Poshard in November after the petition challenge removed Libertarian candidate for Governor Jim Tobin.

“We’ve seen this type of democracy killing behavior for years in Illinois, from Republicans and Democrats, so this is no surprise. Today, I’d like to warn Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan and the US Attorneys in Illinois to keep a very close eye out for the kind of illegal activity surrounding petition challenges that this state has seen in the past.”

“Illinois Republicans need to be reminded that these petition challenges are costly to taxpayers also. Illinois Republicans are costing the taxpayers money because they selfishly feel entitled to having a ballot without much competition on it. Don’t let me leave out Illinois Democrats either, because they are usually worse about costing this state money with frivolous petition challenges.”

“Free and Equal Elections calls for Illinois to reform their ballot access laws and abolish the current private petition challenge system for the good of all Illinois voters. The mess surrounding petition challenges that Illinois will see in the coming months should prove, yet again, the need for real electoral reform in Illinois. Article III, Section 3 of the Illinois Constitution says ‘All Election Shall Be Free And Equal’, and it’s time the Republicans and Democrats started honoring and following that democratic principle,” said Christina Tobin.

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This is the entire text of the Republican email:

From: Republican Organization of Lyons Township <>
Subject: Attention EVERY Republican!
To:
Date: Sunday, June 20, 2010, 12:55 PM

Everyone – Now is the time!

The Illinois GOP is diverting all efforts to challenge those candidates’ petitions that may have a negative impact on OUR Republican nominees (it is our belief that these candidates will steal votes from Republicans.) Starting Tuesday through Saturday it is a must that we fill up all terminals.

All the Committeemen, Precinct Captains and Republicans (County, township and ward) statewide are being asked to divert their time and volunteers to this effort. We have 25 terminals and must fill those throughout the week to achieve victory in 2010.

This information is time sensitive – -One hour or two hours is needed CALL NOW.

For more information or to help in this effort, please contact ASAP:

Lyons Township contact:
Ray Hodson 0r John Small
Precinct Captain Coordinators
or
Jonathan Callaway
Director of Volunteers
Cook County Republican Party

Thank you.
Executive Committee Republican Organization of Lyons Township

“…he’s also headed straight into the buzz saw of Illinois’ daunting petition process to get on the ballot, a process that routinely turns well-organized men and women into political wood chips.”

Now these “well-organized men and women” have Free & Equal to turn to for steel reinforcements against the political buzz saws aimed against competition on the ballots. Free & Equal has left many dulled and broken saw blades behind and we can do it for your candidacy.

Another recent article from Chicago highlights why candidates should call Free & Equal as soon as they consider a run for office. From Ben Joravsky at the Chicago Reader:

“(Joe) Berrios, who’s also chairman of the Cook County Democratic Party, has always been quick to use the fine points of election law and a stable of experts to chase off hapless challengers. In February’s Democratic primary, for instance, he successfully removed one opponent by challenging his petitions and scared another into withdrawing simply by letting her know he intended to challenge hers.”

Scared into withdrawing because of the threat of a petition challenge? Call Free & Equal first.

This photo and editorial was published in the Southtown Star.

Watch the embedded video below or click HERE.

Illinois requires all candidates running for statewide office to collect signatures to get on the ballot in primary elections; meanwhile, nearly two-thirds of the states require only a filing fee in such instances.

“Replacing signature requirements and the unfair challenge system with uniform filing fees is the only way to institute free and equal elections in Illinois, while saving taxpayers between $5 and $10 million a year,” Christina Tobin said, Free & Equal founder and chief executive. At a time when the state’s budget deficit is hitting record highs, ideas like this should be considered carefully.

The state’s rigged signature-objection procedure makes a mockery of the notion that Illinois holds free and fair elections. It’s also an insensible misuse of millions of taxpayer dollars that go towards legal fees, court costs, employee salaries and more.

Many past and present Illinois politicians, including House Speaker Michael Madigan and minority leader Tom Cross, have used the state’s open signature-challenge procedure and public funds to knock legitimate candidates off the state’s election ballots, thereby limiting the choices for voters. These shameful political tactics were highlighted in a recent investigation by FOX Chicago News, and by Free & Equal Founder Christina Tobin in a recent FOX Chicago Sunday interview.

“This isn’t some repressive, extreme regime; This is the United States,” Tobin said. “The American people expect their country to be the example of freedom and fairness for the rest of the world.”

Visit freeandequal.org to see a list of states that require only a filing fee for primary ballot access in statewide elections.