Chicago Ald. Byron Sigcho-Lopez sues over Illinois Board of Elections over congressional ballot requirements

Chicago Ald. Byron Sigcho-Lopez (25th) has sued the Illinois State Board of Elections after it disqualified him from November's ballot, arguing the state's signature requirements for independent congressional candidates are unnecessarily high hurdles for third-party candidates to get on the ballot, and unconstitutional to boot.

Chicago Ald. Byron Sigcho-Lopez (25th) filed a lawsuit last week, taking the Illinois State Board of Elections to task for what he said are unnecessarily high hurdles for third-party candidates to get on the ballot.

Sigcho-Lopez, who is running as an independent for Congress in Illinois 4th Congressional District to replace U.S. Rep. Jesus "Chuy" Garcia (D-Illinois), filed the lawsuit Friday. Also named as a plaintiff was Jose Guerra, identified as a voter who "signed, supported, and circulated ballot access petitions" for Sigcho-Lopez.

The lawsuit comes after the state Board of Elections ruled that Sigcho-Lopez and Mayra Macias, former executive director of the Latino Victory Project, would not appear on the November ballot on the grounds that they did not gather enough signatures.

Both Macias and Sigcho-Lopez had launched their independent campaigns after Garcia waited until just hours before the filing deadline for the March 17 primary election to drop out of the race, clearing the way for his chief of staff, Patty Garcia (no relation) to be the only Democratic candidate on the ballot.

Sigcho-Lopez and Macias each needed to file 10,816 valid signatures to appear on the ballot. While both of them submitted 17,304 signatures, the maximum number allowed, after challenges to their petitions, Illinois State Board of Elections general counsel Marni Malowitz determined they did not have enough valid signatures.

Malowitz said, following a review of their petitions, Macias had filed 9,758 valid signatures and Sigcho-Lopez filed 9,594 valid signatures, leaving both of them more than 1,000 valid signatures short.

In the lawsuit, Sigcho-Lopez argued that the state Board of Elections puts an undue ballot access burden on independent candidates with the number of signatures they have to gather.

The lawsuit said the Illinois Board of Elections splits candidates into three groups — those affiliated with an "established" party, those running with a "new" party and independents.

Independent candidates are not nominated in partisan primaries, but rather run against the established candidates in the general election, the lawsuit said. Independents must obtain at least 5%, but not more than 8%, of the total votes cast in the district in the previous election, the lawsuit said.

Established party candidates have a much lower signature requirement to get on the ballot, the lawsuit said. While third-party candidates receive reduced ballot access requirements by winning an election or receiving a certain portion of the vote, independent candidates with no partisan attachment receive no such benefits, the lawsuit said.

The lawsuit said each of the Democratic Party in Illinois needed to gather a minimum of 15,642 signatures total to field candidates in each of the 17 Illinois congressional districts, while the Republican Party in Illinois had to gather 12,909 signatures for the same.

By contrast, Sigcho-Lopez had to collect 10,816 signatures just for himself, the lawsuit said. The suit said if a group of independent or third-party candidates for Congress had sought ballot access, they would have needed 285,234 signatures in sum.

Individually, Patty Garcia needed to gather only 697 valid signatures to get on the ballot.

The lawsuit added that independent candidates for the November 2026 election were restricted to a maximum of 17,304 signatures.

Further, the lawsuit said Sigcho-Lopez could not circulate his own petition sheets to run for Congress because he had previously circulated a few sheets for a candidate in the March Democratic primary.

The lawsuit said it was Patty Garcia's supporters who filed objections to Sigcho-Lopez's petition sheets, alleging that fewer than 10,816 signatures were submitted after voters whose addresses or signatures were not registered were removed, and that some signature sheets had to be removed because the Sigcho-Lopez supporters who gathered them had also circulated sheets for a Democratic party committeeperson in March.

At least 13 Sigcho-Lopez campaign workers had to travel from Chicago to Springfield as the Board of Elections reviewed his campaign signatures, and for part of the time, they had to go across the street to a gas station if they had to use the restroom, the lawsuit said.

Ultimately, the review concluded that Sigcho-Lopez did not have enough signatures to qualify.

The lawsuit said independent candidates for Congress have much lower and signature requirements in other states, and Illinois' rules pose "a severe burden to ballot access for independent candidates."

The lawsuit accused the Board of Elections of violating Sigcho-Lopez's constitutional rights, and asked to have the petition signature requirements for independent candidates in Illinois ruled unconstitutional. The lawsuit also asked to have the Board of Elections directed to include Sigcho-Lopez's name on the ballot, along with unspecified damages.

The case was assigned to U.S. District Judge Franklin U. Valderrama in Chicago.