Judge finds unconstitutional election law supported by Governor JB Pritzker that helped Democrats in November

A judge in Springfield on Wednesday ruled unconstitutional a new law passed by Democrats that would have prevented Republicans from nominating legislative candidates for the November general election in races in which they had not fielded a candidate in the March primary.

Sangamon County Circuit Judge Gail Noll said the legislation, quickly passed by the Democrat-led Legislature and signed into law on May 3 by Democratic Governor JB Pritzker it was unconstitutional because it “inadmissibly burdens” candidates who had been following the previous law of “their right to vote and have their names placed on the November ballot.”

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Before Democrats moved to change the law, local party committees of any political party could fill general election legislative vacancies in elections in which no candidate from that party had run in the primary. The candidate nominated by the political party was still required to obtain signatures on candidacy petitions in order to appear on the general election ballot.

When he signed the legislation into law, Pritzker said it forced candidates to run in the primary and prevented “backroom deals” where “some small group of people in a smoke-filled room” decided who would run in the general election.

But the attempt to block the selection was seen by many, especially Republicans, as an effort to give Democrats a boost in the Nov. 5 elections, before the vote was even cast. Democrats already hold sizable majorities in the House and Senate and the GOP’s inability to nominate challengers for late general election challenges would only help Democrats maintain their advantage.

“Changing the rules regarding access to voting in the middle of an election cycle removes certainty from the electoral process and is not necessary to achieve the objective proposed by the legislation,” the judge said, noting that lawmakers could have made the change effective for the 2026 legislature. elections.

The lawsuit was filed by the conservative Chicago-based Liberty Justice Center on behalf of Republicans who were circulating candidacy petitions for the November ballot when Pritzker signed the new law, which had an immediate effective date.

Illinois Senate Republican leader John Curran of Downers Grove said in a statement that the law was an attack on the constitutional rights of Illinoisans “in Democrats’ quest for power at all costs.”

“If Governor Pritzker has any faith in Illinois voters, he should immediately call on the Illinois Attorney General to halt further litigation in this matter, accept the court’s decision, and stop trying to manipulate the upcoming elections,” Curran said.

No at the end of May it had suspended the law to take effect pending a final order following a hearing on Monday, which was also the same day as the original deadline for nominated candidates to file their candidacy petitions with the Illinois State Board of Elections.

As a result of the suspension, 17 Republicans filed to appear on the general election ballot through the selection process among 50 seats where the Republican Party did not field primary candidates for House and Senate seats for the November elections.

Noll’s order prevents the now-repealed law from being used to challenge the right of these 17 candidates to appear at the polls.

“The General Assembly can change election rules, but it cannot do so in the middle of the game to keep opponents out of the polls. We are proud to defend these candidates and against yet another scheme to suppress competition in Illinois elections,” Jeffrey Schwab, senior counsel at the Liberty Justice Center, said in a statement.

When Democrats approved the measure in the legislature, they quickly approved it within a two-day period. Pritzker signed the bill into law a day after telling reporters that he had not seen all the details but considered the legislation an “ethics” bill that prevented behind-the-scenes negotiations “to get people to the polls.”

But the law also represented the weakness of the state Republican Party in its inability to field candidates for the General Assembly and in the ability of most Democrats to take advantage of that.

If the law had been allowed to proceed, Democrats would have been just two seats away from maintaining their majority in the Senate and just eight seats away from maintaining their absolute majority, as a result of elections in which no Republican candidate filed in the primaries.

In the House, where all 118 seats are up for election in the fall, Republicans were unable to field a candidate in the primary against 42 House Democrats. This put Democrats just 18 votes away from maintaining majority status and 29 votes away from achieving supermajority status before the general election is held.

Republicans privately argued that Democrats rushed the measure to protect one of the House’s few upstate Democrats, state Rep. Katie Stuart of Edwardsville, from a challenge. But her Republican challenger, Jay Keevan, gathered enough signatures and filed with the State Board of Elections before Pritzker sanctioned her.

Unaffected by the judge’s ruling are provisions of the law that will also place three non-binding advisory proposals on the November ballot — asking voters whether they favor insurance coverage protections for in vitro fertilization, whether recipients of $1 million or more per year should be taxed extra to pay for property tax relief and if candidates for public office face civil charges for trying to interfere with election workers.

A maximum of three non-binding proposals are allowed on the ballot, and the Democrats’ move was intended to thwart attempts by conservatives to try to pose their own advisory question asking whether parental consent should be required for counseling, therapy or child modification procedures. gender.