Eight of 15 candidates seeking to be on the March 17 primary ballot for the 7th district seat in Congress — six Democrats and two Republicans — have seen their nominating petitions challenged.
The six Democrats who had their petitions challenged are Jazmin J. Robinson, Anabel Mendoza, Anthony Driver, Jr., Felix Tello, Kina Collins and David Ehrlich. Both Republicans who filed, Chad Koppie and Patricia “P Rae” Easley, also had their petitions challenged.
For the past three weeks, hearing officers appointed by the Chicago Board of Elections (CBE) have been working to review those formal objections, review hundreds, if not thousands of voter registration signatures, hear arguments from both sides and come to a decision.
Hearing officers have the same duties and powers as an Electoral Board, except they can make no final, binding decisions, only recommendations to the CBE which has sole authority to render a final decision.
Sometime within the next week, hearing officers will render their opinions to the CBE on those challenges, either recommending the objections be sustained, or rejected. If a petition objection is sustained, that candidate’s name will be stricken from the March 17 ballot.
Records examinations related to objections against the petitions of Kina Collins and David Ehrlich were conducted on Dec. 3, and their cases continued to Wednesday, Dec 10, after the AWN print deadline. Also continued were the cases against Anabel Mendoza (to Dec. 9) and Jazmin J. Robinson (to Dec. 10). The next hearing on the cases against Anthony Driver and Felix Tello were listed as “to be determined” as of Dec. 8.
The CBE listed the status of objections against Koppie and Easley as “recommendation pending.”
While each petition objection case is judged on its own set of facts, there are usually similarities. Marlo Payne, the objector to Patricia Easley’s nominating papers, has alleged that her filing “lacks the 232 signatures required,” specifically alleging that among the up to 620 signatures on her petitions, a majority are not “duly qualified, registered, (or) legal voters at the addresses shown opposite their names…”
According to Illinois Election law, based on the voter turnout in the 7th Congressional district in 2024, Democratic candidates must submit a minimum of 1,164 valid voter signatures to be on the March primary ballot while 232 valid signatures are required to be on the Republican primary ballot.
Objectors have the burden of proving their objections by a preponderance of the evidence, and “relief will be denied if he or she fails to sustain that burden.”
The eight 7th Congressional candidates whose petitions were challenged represent more than a third of all petition challenges the CBE is dealing with this election cycle, a smaller than usual number.
CBE spokesman Max Bevar said Friday that election officials expected to conclude the process by Dec. 17, although if candidates opt to appeal any CBE decisions in circuit court, that could take the process into January.
“It was a lighter year than usual, and we expect to be wrapped up sooner,” said Bevar, who noted that the CBE had a total of only 23 objections filed this year. All recommendations from CBE hearing officers must be voted on by the full electoral board; the next scheduled CBE meeting is Dec. 23.
The last day for 2026 primary candidates to be certified for inclusion on the 2026 general primary election ballot is Jan. 8. That deadline allows the 108 local election authorities around the state to have finalized names for all races in order to proceed with printing paper ballots.
The practice of challenging candidates nominating petitions has its supporters and detractors. On the one hand, it’s seen as a necessary gateway onto the ballot. While established Illinois laws state in part that “Ballot access is a substantial right and not lightly to be denied,” candidate’s nominating petitions do get denied, and their names blocked from being on the ballot.
In 1974, a circuit court opined that “A procedure inviting or permitting every citizen to present himself to the voters on the ballot without some means of measuring the seriousness of the candidate’s desire and motivation would make rational voter choices more difficult because of the size of the ballot and hence would tend to impede the electoral process.”
Therefore, the court reasoned, ballot access should be conditioned “on a modicum showing of voter support” shown by the signatures of a set number of voters in an electoral district. Courts have found that such requirements are “not onerous” and do not deny due process.
Ballot challenges are seen by some as anti-democratic and unfairly limiting the number of people able to run for office, as well as imposing economic burdens on a candidate in defending his or her petition submissions.
