JeffTrigg.com - COMMENTS

Illinois Blog Lobby 4 Fair Elections Thank you for your interest in Free and Equal Elections and for visiting to learn more about our action in Illinois. There is a lot of information below, but it all comes down to one thing. Fair Elections. Three State Representatives, Democrats Mike Boland and Jack Franks, and Republican Paul Froehlich, are taking their oath seriously to defend the statement below.

Illinois Constitution
Article III. Section. "ALL ELECTIONS SHALL BE FREE AND EQUAL."

There is a bill in the Illinois House right now, House Bill 758 introduced by Mike Boland with Franks and Froehlich joining, that will make our Illinois elections less oppressive to independent and third party candidates. Right now our ballot access laws hugely favor Republicans and Democrats, while making it almost impossible for independent and third party candidates to run for some offices. In one State Representative District a Democrat needs 300 signatures to run for office while an independent would need 6,040 and a third party candidate would need 3,020. To run for a US House seat an average of 13,123 signatures in 90 days are needed from independent and third party candidates, while Republicans and Democrats often need less than 600 signatures.

This simply isn't fair and sets a horrible example around the world to countries like Iraq and Afghanistan showing them how to keep competition off the ballot. Did you know that 70 of the 140 State Rep and Senate races in Illinois were unopposed in 2004? 50% of our voters had NO CHOICE on their ballot. Competition is better for everyone and we need your help convincing our elected leaders to stop only thinking about their lust for power and to start doing the right thing.

Already, an outpouring of support from the Illinois Blog Community is happening with posts from all over Illinois. HB758 is a bill everyone can and should support from all over the political spectrum. Read what the Republican and Democrat and Libertarian and Independent bloggers all have to say about HB758. (Any Green bloggers out there?)

Dan Johnson-Weinberger was crucial in getting HB758 introduced and can't be thanked enough.
Free Will Blog gave me a big boost.
The Reagan Review was especially accomodating.
Stephen from Discursive Recursions noticed.
Bruno from Extreme Wisdom has joined in.
My DrugWarRant friend Pete Guither is involved.
Blago's Blunders asks a question.
IlliniPundit forcefully adds his opinion.
XBip has joined the ever growing revolution.
Inside Dope wants some fresh air and competition.
The Peoria Pundit jumped in.
One Man's Thoughts include supporting HB758.
Red Chicago knows the score in Chicago.
Alabama Libertarian friend Stephen Gordon faces some of the same in his state.
Hiram Wurf relates HB758 with Democrats in DuPage.
inhumanbeing or Conjecture Party (not sure what the official name is, sorry) endorses renting "The Incredibles" and contacting your rep.
The new to me DownLeft blog has some great commentary about HB758.

If YOU have a blog, please add your voice and I'll put the link right here. I truly appreciate each and every blogger above who has helped reach thousands and probably tens of thousands of people about Illinois' bad ballot access laws. Illinois Blog Lobby efforts have already paid off slightly as our results did get a rise out of the JoinCrossBlog crew (from the internet savvy, in-touch Republican Minority Leader Tom Cross staff). And now, JoinCross blogger Chris Rhodes is passing along some emails he's gotten to the powers that be. A few phone calls to the offices of the Honorable Tom Cross (below) and we might push him into the Leader role on this much needed election law reform.

Ken DeCoster at WNTA 1330AM in Rockford was nice enough to include me on his show after receiving this news release on ballot access laws and you can listen to the interview right here.

http://www.randomactofkindness.com/files/wntainterview.wav (2.1 MB)

What we need you to do RIGHT NOW is to call or contact YOUR State Representative's office. Ask them to sign on as a co-sponsor to House Bill 758 that makes our elections more free and equal. Two minutes tops, and you have joined the legislative process. If you want to do more, you can, and we'll get to that later.

Don't know who your State Representative is? Go here and carefully type in your address.

http://www.elections.state.il.us/DLS/Pages/DLSAddressCrit.asp

Now that you know the name of your Rep., go here to find their phone and fax numbers and their addresses.

http://www.ilga.gov/house/default.asp

Some Republican House Member email addresses are here.

http://housegop.state.il.us/districts.asp

If you want to do more there are two main Leaders in the Illinois House we'd also like you to contact right along with the Governor and Lieutenant Governor:

Democrat Speaker Michael Madigan

mmadigan@ilga.gov

Springfield Office:.....................District Office:
300 Capitol Building.................6500 South Pulaski Road
Springfield, IL 62706................Chicago, IL 60629
(217) 782-5350........................(773) 581-8000
(217) 524-1794 FAX.................(773) 581-9414 FAX

and

Republican Minority Leader Tom Cross.

masterw@housegopmail.state.il.us

Springfield Office:........................District Office:
316 Capitol Building....................530 W. Lockport St., Suite 204
Springfield, IL 62706...................Plainfield, IL 60544
(217) 782-1331..........................(815) 254-0000
(217) 782-7012 FAX...................(815) 609-3994 FAX

For Govenor Blagojevich, he can't sponsor HB758 but you sure can tell him that you feel our election laws are unfair and as Governor he should do something about it.

Office of the Governor
207 State House
Springfield, IL 62706
(217) 782-0244

or send an email to the Governor by filling out the form at this link.
http://www.illinois.gov/gov/contactthegovernor.cfm

Lt. Governor Pat Quinn can also be contacted and asked to do something about our anti-democratic election laws.

Office of Lt. Governor,
214 State House,
Springfield, IL 62706;
(217) 782-7884
[Fax 217-524-6262]

OR

Office of Lt. Governor
James R. Thompson Center
100 W. Randolph,
15-200,
Chicago, IL 60601
(312) 814-5220
[Fax 312-814-4862]

I'll add more info here as it happens or comes to mind. I don't care how long it takes. I will relentlessly push for ballot access law reform until the powers that be start doing the right thing and stop trying to hold on to their power by oppressing political competition. This week I'll finish a spreadsheet that shows the ballot access requirements for each state level office in Illinois with the differences between candidate affiliations and share it here.

Below is a sample letter/fax/email/talking points you may want to use for HB758. Another idea is to go to one of the blogs above and print out what they have to say. Write on it that you saw this on the internet and agree with what they have to say and mail it to them. Print two or three or all of the blog posts and mail them in.

Dear Honorable State Representative ______:

I am writing to you to ask for your help in co-sponsoring House Bill 758 introduced this week by Representative Mike Boland. HB 758 seeks to make our ballot access laws less severe for independent and third-party candidates. If passed, this bill would result in lowering the number of petition signatures needed by independents and third-party candidates to twice the amount needed by candidates from the Democratic or Republican parties.

Illinois has some of the most severe ballot access requirements not only in the U.S. but across all democracies in the world. For example: It is harder to get on the ballot for U.S. House in Illinois than it is in any other state. On average, independents and third parties will need 13,123 signatures in 90 days to run for U.S. House in 2006, versus an average of 651 for Republicans and Democrats.

Article III. Section 3 of the Illinois Constitution eloquently says "All elections shall be free and equal". When candidates of some parties need more than 20 signatures for every one required of their opponents from other parties, it doesn't seem like the intent of our State Constitution is being upheld.

Unless we change our own system here in Illinois, we will not have a leg to stand on when we try to defend real democracy in Iraq or elsewhere. And it would be a tragedy if the newly elected Shiite parties in Iraq were to follow our example and make it 20 times harder for minority Sunni, Kurd or Christian parties to run for office.

Please help rectify this situation by co-sponsoring HB 758 to bring free, equal, and democratic elections to Illinois.

Thank you for your service to our state and your time and attention in this matter.

Sincerely, Posted by: Jeff Trigg at 12:25 pm| 02/28/05 | Election laws