An Illinois Appellate Court recently
overturned an Electoral Board’s decision disqualifying a new party’s slate of
candidates for including political images in the candidate’s nomination
petitions, and ordered that the candidates’ names be placed on the ballot in Maloney
v. Janecyk.

A political party (Party) filed new party nomination petitions last fall nominating a slate of candidates
for village offices at the 2025 Consolidated Election.
In addition to information required by the Illinois Election Code, the Party’s
nomination petitions featured American flags at the top of the petition sheets.
An objection was filed against the Party’s slate of candidates arguing the
petition sheets violated the Election Code by containing political slogans and
messages.

The Municipal Officers Electoral
Board held a hearing on the objection. At the hearing, the
objectors argued that including American flags on the petition sheets constituted prohibited
political messaging under the Election Code. The Party candidates responded that no
express provision of the Election Code prohibited displaying American flags on
candidate petition sheets.

The Electoral Board ruled in
favor of the objectors and issued a written order denying the Party’s
candidates access to the ballot. Party candidates appealed to the circuit
court, which reversed the Electoral Board’s ruling. The circuit court ruled
that the Election Code’s restrictions on political slogans in candidate
petition sheets only applied to names of candidates, and that the Board’s ruling
improperly created a new exclusionary rule denying the Party’s candidates
access to the Consolidated Election ballot.

On appeal, the Appellate Court agreed with the circuit court and ruled that as the Election Code provisions on
candidate petition sheets were unambiguous, the Electoral Board improperly
created a new exclusionary rule by denying the Party’s candidates access to the
ballot. As no express provision of the Election Code prohibited displaying
American flags in the heading of a candidate’s nomination petition sheets, the
Appellate Court overturned the Electoral Board’s decision and ordered the names
of Party candidates be printed on the 2025 consolidated election ballot for the
village.

Post Authored by Tyler Smith, Ancel Glink