Nominating Petition Traps Nominating Petition Traps Candidates for state and local office in Illinois are required to possess varying specific qualifications and are required to file nomination papers including petitions signed by registered voters in the district served by the office. Thus, most incumbents regularly consult their election lawyer both to guide their own actions and also to trip up their opponents. Only the cynical would suggest that incumbents attempt to periodically change the election law simply in order to confound the unwary.
Different offices have different required qualifications.
The forms needed to be filed must be custom-made to suit each individual situation. Some of the forms which are standard require specific answers which are not clearly evident from the form's questions. The number of supporting signatures required may be a crushing burden since, in some situations, an absolute minimum of 25,000 absolutely perfect signatures is required. Just about the worst thing that can happen to a political candidate is to be removed from the ballot. The next worst thing is for the candidate to spend all or most of his campaign resources and time defending a reasonable sounding objection to his ballot access.