Sign This at Your Own Risk

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Returning to my question from last week on whether you can sign more than one petition for candidates running for the same office (see this post), I got some clarification from a reader who actually took the time to investigate:

…you can only sign one petition for each office. But people also tell me that petitions have rarely -- if ever -- been challenged in the city of Springfield.

…it's a state law… but it applies to every state and local office. There is one difference in the law between partisan elections and non-partisan elections. You can sign as many petitions as you want within a party primary, according to the [Sprngfield] city clerk. So, for example, you could have signed petitions for both Cahnman and Redpath in the 99th House race, but you could not have signed petitions for Poe. But in a non-partisan primary, you can only sign petitions for one.

So there you have it. You aren’t supposed to do it but probably no one is checking either. Don’t ask, don’tell.

In a related matter, Eric Zorn asks why incumbents have to pass petitions to get (back) on the ballot. The answer might surprise you.

Update: Speaking of incumbents, why must some of them have inaugurations?