Illinois Electoral Board Tosses 3 Supreme Court Hopefuls Off Ballot, Candidates Appeal

CHICAGO — A trio of candidates seeking their party's nomination for a vacant seat on the state supreme court are appealing the Illinois State Board of Elections' decision to toss them off the June primary election ballot.

Highland Park Mayor Nancy Rotering, a Democrat, former Lake County Sheriff Mark Curran, a Republican, and Appellate Judge Susan Hutchinson, a Republican, jointly filed a petition for judicial review of Thursday's unanimous state electoral board vote that found they had filed insufficient signatures for the Illinois Supreme Court's newly redistricted 2nd District.

The minimum number of valid signatures candidates are required to submit in order to appear on a primary ballot is determined by how many people voted in that district in the previous gubernatorial election — 0.4 percent of the number of votes for cast for that party's candidate for governor or 500 signatures, whichever is more.

But in this case, the new district — composed of DeKalb, Kane, Kendall, Lake and McHenry counties — was created in June 2021 when Democratic state lawmakers redistricted the state's high court for the first time in six decades.

Additionally, legislators modified the election code to reduce by a third the number of signatures required to appear on the 2022 primary ballot as a candidate for state supreme court judge.

Rotering faced an objection from Nancy Waites, of Mundelein, while Curran and Hutchinson were challenged by objectors Cacilia Masover and Alan Spellberg, both of Highland Park.

Using the results of the 2018 gubernatorial election, the objections argued that a minimum of 791 signatures is required to appear on the Democratic Party ballot and 757 are required to appear on the Republican Party's ballot.

The candidates argued that, because the new six-county judicial district did not exist in 2018, the amount of signatures needed to appear on the ballot should be counted as 334 — 66 percent of the minimum 500 ballots — as printed in the state election board's 2022 candidate's guide.

Hutchinson submitted 702 signatures, Curran submitted 670, and Rotering submitted 669.

A hearing officer for the state electoral board issued a final set of findings April 19, recommending that the candidates be allowed to appeal on the ballot. The board's general counsel agreed.

"Because the newly drawn Second Judicial District has never voted as a unit, as it did not exist before 2021, calculation of the signature requirement [using the 0.4 percent formula in State Election Code] should not be conducted using 2018 gubernatorial votes of the individual counties comprising the new Second Judicial Circuit because that calculation is not expressly contemplated by the Election Code," the hearing officer recommended.

But the board disagreed, deciding in favor of the objectors following Thursday's meeting in Chicago and via videoconference in Springfield.

"The Board rejects the finding and recommendations of the Hearing Officer and General Counsel," according to the decision, "and finds that ... Neither Candidate Hutchinson, nor Candidate Curran, nor Candidate Rotering has gathered the minimum number of valid signatures required to gain access to the ballot for the office of Supreme Court Justice for the Second Judicial District of the State of Illinois ... and the names of Candidates Susan F. Hutchinson, Mark C. Curran Jr., and Nancy Rodkin Rotering shall NOT be certified for the June 28, 2022 General Primary Election ballot."

Attorneys for the three challenged candidates argued that the board's decision went against its own practices for handling the first elections after other kinds of redistricting, as well as its own candidate's guide.

"The Electoral Board’s decision is against the statutory language, principles of statutory interpretation, legal precedent, the empirical practice of the State Board of Elections, traditional tenets of due process, and the strong judicial philosophy favoring ballot access," argued the attorneys. "Accordingly, the Electoral Board’s decision must be reversed."

Hutchinson is represented by Keri-Lyn Krafthefer and Rotering is represented by Mike Kreloff and Ed Mullen, while Mark Curran is representing himself in the appeal.

"I am confident that this [appeal] Petition will be successful and that my name will be on the ballot when voters in the 2[nd] District begin voting in the June primary," Hutchinson said in a statement provided to Politico.

Patch requested comment from the Curran campaign and will include any response received here.

Rotering's campaign provided a statement saying the trio of candidates is seeking an expedited hearing and a stay of the state electoral board's decision.

"We are disappointed that the Illinois State Board of Elections acted contrary to its own Candidates' Guide and the recommendations of its Hearing Officer and General Counsel that Nancy Rotering's name appear on the ballot as a candidate for Supreme Court Judge," the Rotering campaign statement said. "We believe the courts will ultimately support the right of the voters to choose their Supreme Court candidates in the June 28 primary election."