A state appeals panel determined the State Board of Elections improperly removed three Illinois Supreme Court candidates from the June 28 primary ballot.
In late April, the elections board disqualified the nominating petitions of Republicans Susan Hutchinson and Mark Curran, as well as Democrat Nancy Rodkin Rotering, all of whom hope to compete for a vacant seat on the state high court representing the Second Judicial District. The candidates’ petitions had 702, 670 and 669 signatures, respectively, but objectors claimed state election law dictated the Republicans needed 757 signatures, while Rotering needed 791.
According to court documents, the discrepancy stems from interpretation of an Election Code provision that candidates need to provide at least 500 signatures or 0.4 percent of the total number of votes cast in the district during the most recent gubernatorial general election. In 2021, the General Assembly amended the code, reducing the signature threshold by a third.
Lawmakers last year also approved new judicial district maps, removing Boone, Carroll, DuPage, Jo Davies, Lee, Ogle, Stephenson and Winnebago counties from the Second District, leaving only DeKalb, Kane, Kendall, Lake and McHenry.
A ISBE hearing officer recommended the candidates remain on the ballot, ruling 2018 voting figures shouldn’t establish a signature minimum for the new Second District. But the ISBE voted otherwise.
The candidates appealed to the courts, and Cook County Circuit Court Judge Maureen Hannon reversed the state board’s decision.
The objectors, identified as Alan Spellberg, Cacilia Masover and Nancy Waites, then appealed to the Illinois First District Appellate Court.
Justice Mary Mikva wrote the opinion for the three-justice appellate panel, issued June 7; Justices Robert Gordon and Sharon Johnson concurred.
According to Mikva, Hannon’s May 12 written order established nothing in the Election Code “directs the candidates to calculate the minimum number of signatures by adding the vote totals in the counties that make up the newly configured Second Judicial District.”
Hannon also noted the ISBE “had the exact numbers” for the new Second District and, if it wanted those figures used for the primary ballot, it “could have made that calculation in its Candidate’s Guide for 2022.”
On appeal, the electors noted the General Assembly didn’t specify intent to use a different signature calculation, despite “several other provisions of the Election Code, which provide for either a specific signature requirement or a specific signature calculation in the first election following redistricting,” Mikva wrote.
The panel agreed with the position the new Second District is different from the old one, and found that reality should decide the question.
“At bottom, objectors’ argument is premised on the divisibility of a judicial district into its component counties and the notion the ‘district’ means two different things within” the Election Code, Mikva wrote. “Where the statutory language tethers the minimum signature requirement to the existence of the district, the district must have existed at the time of the last election.”
The objectors also argued other portions of the Election Code support their position on calculating signature requirements, as does a 2005 amendment setting different minimums for judicial district candidates and those running in judicial circuits and subcircuits. The panel rejected those arguments, saying the amendment doesn’t alter the definition of a district and noting “objectors also fail to explain why the fact that the Election Code refers to specific situations in which a district or a city or a county voted ‘as a unit’ renders the definition of a ‘district’ either superfluous or inapplicable in this case.”
The panel affirmed Judge Hannon’s ruling reversing the board’s decision and ordered the candidates’ names to appear on the primary ballot.
Representing the objectors are attorneys John Fogarty Jr. and Michael C. Dorf, both of Chicago.
Representing the candidates are attorneys Keri-Lyn J. Krafthefer and Daniel J. Bolin, of the firm of Ancel Glink PC, of Chicago; Mark C. Curran Jr., of Libertyville; Michael Kreloff, of Northrbook; and Ed Mullen, of the Westside Justice Center of Chicago.