On Tuesday, Socialist Equality Party candidate Joseph Parnarauskis filed a lawsuit against the Illinois State Board of Elections (SBE), demanding that it break its deadlock and certify him for the November 7 ballot. Parnarauskis is running for state Senate from the 52nd Legislative District, which includes Champaign-Urbana and Danville in east central Illinois. Due to the intransigent opposition of the board's four Democratic Party members, the SBE missed the September 1 deadline for the certification of the SEP candidate. Meanwhile, election officials in the 52nd Legislative District are preparing to print ballots without Parnarauskis's name. On August 31, the SBE certified every candidate in the state's 110 election jurisdictions except Parnarauskis. This occurred after Democratic commissioners voted against the recommendation of the board's own examiner to put the SEP on the ballot because he had met the signature requirement. Despite having failed to prove their frivolous objections to Parnarauskis's nominating petitions, the Democrats have prevented the board from amending the list of certified candidates to include his name--a flagrant violation of their legal obligation to certify a candidate who has met the state's requirements for ballot status.

With the clock ticking and ballots scheduled to be printed within a matter of days, the Illinois election board remained deadlocked at a meeting yesterday in Springfield. While Socialist Equality Party candidate in the 52nd state Senate district Joseph Parnarauskis has not been removed from the ballot, the four Democrats on the eight-member State Board of Elections (SBE) are continuing to block the vote needed to certify his name for the November 7 ballot. ... Since the board remains deadlocked, Judge Kelly will hear the SEP's case this morning, September 19, at the Sangamon County courthouse.

A Sangamon County Circuit Court judge on Tuesday ordered the Illinois State Board of Elections (SBE) to amend its list of certified candidates to include the name of Joe Parnarauskis, the Socialist Equality Party's candidate for State Senate in the 52nd Legislative District. Judge Patrick Kelley gave the election board until Thursday, September 21, at 2 p.m., to certify the SEP candidate or face being held in contempt of court. The judge also ordered election authorities in Champaign and Vermilion counties, as well as the city of Danville, not to print ballots until the election board complied with the judge's ruling and certified Parnarauskis. The ruling was a blow to the Illinois Democratic Party machine, which has mounted a three-month campaign, involving high-level attorneys, to exclude the SEP from the ballot.