Email us (greens@prairienet.org) if you can help defend petition signatures in your county from the coming legal challenge!
Latest News: BATTLE FOR THE BALLOT IN ILLINOIS A FULL TIME JOB FOR DOZENS OF VOLUNTEERS
Greens and Nader Win Key Battle for Illinois Ballot Access - But Not Yet the War!
Federal Court Judge William J. Hibbler ruled Aug. 25 in Chicago that supporters of Nader/LaDuke may file all petition signatures collected through August 7! This is a major victory.
Press releases from the Nader Campaign and from the Brennan Center for Justice, which represented Nader in his lawsuit against the state, describe the judge's decision.
The initial deadline for petition signatures was June 26. In July, the Green Party ticket was ruled off the ballot after a prominent Chicago Democrat filed a challenge alleging that too few signatures had been filed. The state Board of Elections conducted a preliminary count and found 23,841 signatures - fewer than the 25,000 required.
The Greens continued collecting signatures until August 7 - which would have been the deadline if the state legislature had not moved it forward by six weeks last year. Lawyers for Nader argued that the deadline should be moved back because the new deadline was unconstitutionally early. However, the judge decided to put aside any questions of the Illinois law's constitutionality. He ruled instead that the state Board of Elections impaired the campaign's ability to collect signatures, by recommending that only registered Illinois voters could canvass for signatures. This kind of requirement had previously been ruled unconstitutional in a different Illinois court, and its enforcement had been stayed pending appeal.
Judge Hibbler's ruling means that the Greens can submit all 39,039 signatures collected through August 7. This is wonderful news! However, it does not directly put Nader/LaDuke on the ballot. Lawyers for the person who brought the challenge to the initial filing made clear yesterday that they would challenge every one of the new signatures as well.
This requires us to defend every one of those signatures in county clerks' offices throughout the state. The bulk of the work will fall to Greens in Cook County, where most signatures were collected. However, supporters from all over Illinois signed the petitions to put Nader/LaDuke on the ballot, and so these signatures will need to be defended from challenges all over the state. We need everyone's help to accomplish this!
Email us (greens@prairienet.org ) if you can help defend petition signatures in your county from the coming legal challenge!
Brief filed for ballot access in Federal
District Court
http://www.chicagogreens.org/docs/NaderILbrief.pdf
Illinois-specific ballot access stories
Campaign press release announcing the Aug. 25 federal hearing - (prepared by a Prairie Green)
Nader Campaign Fifty Percent Over Required Signatures, Prairie Greens press release, Aug. 8, 2000
Nader Fights for Place on Illinois Ballot - Story accepted for publication in Champaign-Urbana (IL) Octopus, Aug. 4, 2000
'Green Futures' - radio show interview by E. G. Hughes with Elizabeth Daniel (Brennan Center for Justice), lead counsel in Illinois lawsuit, WDBX-FM, Carbondale, IL, Aug. 1, 2000 (30 minutes, RealAudio format)
Nader 2000 v. Illinois State Board of Elections - Ballot Access News report, July, 2000
Nader Sues to Get on State Ballot - Chicago Sun-Times, July 21,2000
Illinois Deadlines Made Worse - Ballot Access News report, November, 1999
Judge rejects Greens in North Carolina, email cites Associated Press story, Aug. 9, 2000
Judge gets arguments in
NC Nader ballot plea, email cites Raleigh (NC) News-Observer story,
Aug. 1, 2000
Other Nader/LaDuke ballot news stories
Nader Battles for Ballot Access, Debate Inclusion - CNN 'Burden of Proof' transcript, Aug. 9, 2000
Nader on 34 State Ballots - Washington Post, Aug. 7, 2000
http://www.ilnd.uscourts.gov - website for Federal District Court, Northern District, Eastern Division, where the Illinois lawsuit has been filed
http://www.chicagocouncil.org/candidat.htm - information from the Chicago Council of Lawyers about qualifications of Federal District Court Judge William J. Hibbler, the Clinton appointee who is hearing the Illinois lawsuit
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