THE POLITICIANS ARE COMING!

For Illinois residents, Sept. 6, 2011 marked the official start of the 2012 political year. This is the first day that potential candidates can begin circulating petitions. 

Candidates and their volunteers will be knocking on your door to ask for ballot signatures between Sept. 6 and Dec. 5; Dec. 5 is the last day to file petitions with the local election authorities. 

The petition process is the first step in democracy: It gives candidates the chance to be placed on the Ballot for the Primary Election on March 20, 2012. If a candidate wins the primary, they can be placed on the ballot for the General Election in November. 

Here are a few things you should know about the process: 

• Signing for a candidate does not obligate you in any way! Your signature only means that you support their right to be placed on the ballot; it does not mean that you are required to vote for them. 

• As allowed by law, candidates have access to voter records and must agree to use this data for the sole purpose of campaigning. Signing for a candidate will not place your name on commercial mailing lists. 

• While a voter is free to sign a petition for any candidate regardless of party, they are restricted by law from signing for more than one political party within an election cycle. 
• As a registered voter, you may sign as many petitions as you want within an office and political party. For example, if there are 3 candidates from the same party running in the primary for a County-wide office you may sign the petition for all three candidates even if only one person is to be nominated, but you cannot also sign a petition for another candidate of an opposite party for that same office. 

• No one may sign petitions for candidates of more than one political party for the same Primary Election. But most candidates stay within their own party when asking for signatures. So if you are a Democrat, it is unlikely that a Republican candidate will ask for your signature and vice versa. 

The signature process is hard work, requiring candidates to go door-to-door in all kinds of weather, hoping to find people home and willing to come to the door. The number of signatures a candidate is required to obtain in a primary election is based on a percentage of the highest votes a candidate of the same party received in the previous election. Some candidates require as few as 150 signatures while other positions require several thousand signatures. This equals many, many hours of walking and knocking on doors just to be placed on the ballot. So if you are home when a candidate knocks on your door, please take a minute to answer the door and sign for them. Your signature on a petition is the easiest, fastest and cheapest thing you can do to participate in America’s democracy! 

Contact your local election authority if you have questions about the petition process or to register to vote.