Ed Rutledge for Lieutenant Governor

By Ed Rutledge

2010 Libertarian Candidate for Lieutenant Governor

01/25/2011

So ballot access laws were used to push Rahm Emanuel out of the race to become Chicago’s next mayor, and people are either jubilant or angry. Frankly, having gone through something similar just a few months ago, I see this as a great opportunity to finally shine a public light on the issue of ballot access in Illinois. It is not widely known, but Illinois has some of the most onerous ballot access laws in the country. Unless you are running under a major party flag (and the mayoral race is non-partisan), you will find very high hurdles placed in your way. While I am disheartened whenever a candidate is pushed off of the ballot (choice is good), I was glad to see the court enforce the law in such a high profile case – it is the only way to get such a bad law noticed, which is the only way we can get such a law fixed.

I understand that there are many people who believe that the law was not properly enforced, who are trying to talk their way into proving that Rahm was a resident of Chicago during his stay in Washington. Frankly, in my mind, the question of residency was never really in question. While I lived in Holland, despite the fact that I remained a citizen of the United States and of Illinois, and even though I was still registered to vote in Illinois, I was, during that period, a resident of Amsterdam. I was not of them, but I was among them. I lived there. I resided there. I had my residence there. I was a resident there. Not here.

The “serving one’s country” argument does not hold water, either. Elected officials are sent by voters to serve their country, and military personnel are constantly on the move and are told where they will go in their service to our country. Explicit compensations are made in such cases. Employees of the Federal Government, on the other hand, are in no such position. Other than pay grade, there is no difference between a person taking a high level job in the White House or a low level job in the State Department. While elected officials and military personnel serve their country, Rahm served his boss. The fact that he worked for the President (just like everyone else in the Executive branch) is not relevant as it relates to election law.

But all of this misses the bigger picture, which is ballot access and the right to have real choice in the polling booth. If this law were being applied to a lesser known candidate, this would not even have made the news. People would not be trying to craft new definitions of “residency” to bend the law in their favor. The law would have been applied, and that would be that. Having successfully gone through a similar process less than a year ago, I know how stringent Illinois’s ballot access laws are. Like Rahm, I have seen them in action. It is ironic, but Rahm found himself caught in legislation enacted to smooth the way for candidates like him while squeezing out candidates like those he was running against.

Again, though, I firmly believe that choice is good, and I believe that only voters should have the right to choose their elected officials. If it were up to me, Rahm would be on the ballot – not because Rahm is Rahm, but because Illinois election law were changed to make real ballot access possible. So while this situation is unfortunate for Rahm, it has given ballot access the public exposure that it deserves and we, Illinois citizens, should use this opportunity to consider what we want out of election law.

For example, do we really want our legislators to choose our candidates for us? Do we want to make it hard for some candidates and easy for others, or should requirements be the same for all candidates? Do we want to encourage ordinary citizens to run for office, or make it so difficult that only professional politicians can play?

Let’s use this opportunity to set things right. It is time for voters to demand a restoration of our right to freely choose our representation in government. It is time to dismantle the roadblocks that our legislators have placed in the way of potential candidates. It is time to level the electoral playing field and enact sensible, uniform ballot access laws. It is time for voters to reclaim our right to really vote.

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