Monday, December 11, 2006

Ballot Measure

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Speaking of Springfield elections, I had three people come to my door this weekend looking for signatures for their candidate. One was gathering signatures for Tim Davlin and the other two were doing the same for aldermanic candidates.

I’m almost always willing to sign a petition to get a name on the ballot, even if I don’t like the person and have no intention of voting for them.

However, I was told this weekend that you can not sign a petition for more than one candidate for the same office, at least on the city level. This issue arose because on Saturday I signed a petition for my incumbent alderman and on Sunday the man with the petition for a possible opponent told me I could not sign his if I already signed the one for his opponent the day before. I’d never heard of such a thing. And I don’t like it.

Does this rule apply to all ballot contests? Or is this just a Springfield thing or an Illinois thing?

2 comments:

Rich Miller said...

Petitions are essentially a legal document of support. So, with that in mind, signing petitions for two opponents kinda undermines that theory.

Also, if you sign a petition for a Democrat in a partisan primary, you're not supposed to take a Republican ballot, and vicey versey.

JeromeProphet said...

You could sign for either, or both, and it would never be noticed.

JP