As a “New Party” in Illinois, the Illinois Green Party is barred from participating in the Illinois state-run primary election and, as such, Green candidates must petition for ballot access for the general election. This means that we, third party and independent candidates, must petition under different and more repressive ballot access requirements. This means we have to collect between 5 and 20 times the signatures of the major parties, depending on the race. For our presidential ticket, we have to collect 25,000 valid signatures in 90 days. This is compared to the 3,000 signatures required of the Democrats and Republicans.
This year, the general election petitioning period begins on March 26, 2024 and runs until the petition filing period from June 17 though June 24, 2024. During this time, in order to get our presidential ticket on the ballot in Illinois, we will need to collect 25,000 valid signatures and we need your help!
2024 Illinois Green Party Presidential Petition Drive
Every election since 2016 the Green Party has ran a presidential slate. We do this for a number of reasons, some having to do with the long term growth of the party (presidential and gubernatorial race results are the only way to become a Recognized Party in Illinois), some having to do with US political culture (presidential cycles see increased attention on electoral politics), and some having to to with the need for a progressive voice in our political system (if we won’t speak for our issues, they will not be spoken about). 2024 is no different.
As in previous years, the Illinois ballot access petitioning period is before any party has chosen nominees for president. This is not an issue for the major parties, as they petition for access to the state-run primary, but for Greens this means that we have to petition for a candidate who has not yet won our party’s nomination. To accommodate this, we place the winner of the ILGP Presidential Selection Vote on our ballot with a place holder Vice Presidential candidate. After the nomination has occurred, the appropriate names are placed on the ballot by the ILGP before the General Election.
In 2024, Jill Stein of Massachusetts won the ILGP Presidential Selection Vote with 84% of the vote. This means that she has been placed on the ILGP’s ballot access petition, alongside Samson LeBeau Kpadenou, a Green Party leader from Florida. Jill was previously the Green Party Nominee for President in 2012 and 2016. A long time party member and leader, Jill’s campaign has committed to getting in the ballot across the country and Illinois is one of the hardest lifts.
Learn more about Jill’s campaign at https://www.jillstein2024.com/
Key Petitioning Facts
Who can circulate the petition?
- Circulators must be 18 years old and US citizens or 17 and will be 18 on or before Election Day, November 3, 2020.
- They do not have to be registered Illinois voters or even Illinois residents.
- However, a circulator cannot circulate our petitions if they have circulated a petition for the candidate of another party, or for an independent candidate, for the 2024 primary or general election for any office.
- A circulator can also be one of the petition signers and can sign one of the petitions they are circulating.
Printing and filling out petitions
- If you print petition copies, they must be on letter (8.5 x 11) paper.
- Do not alter any of the text on the petition! The boilerplate information on the top and bottom must be identical.
- DO NOT NUMBER YOUR PETITION SHEETS! They get numbered by the coordinators later.
You can fill out the circulator information at the bottom at any time, BUT DO NOT SIGN THE CIRCULATOR LINE UNLESS YOU ARE IN THE PRESENCE OF A NOTARY!