Illinois Issues Election Almanac

By PORTER McNEIL

QUESTION OF THE MONTH:

How were Illinois House candidate Ken McCrady (D-88) and Senate candidate Lorene Hight (D-44) chosen as winners of their party's nominations in the primary elections?

After the March 18 primary votes were counted, 27 party nominations were won by write-in votes to House and Senate candidacies, and almost half of the candidates received only one write-in vote.

Historically there have been many primary races in Illinois' legislative districts in which one party fielded no candidate. The results were a number of one-horse races in the general election. The parties can and have nominated candidates by petition after the primary to give some opposition to otherwise unopposed legislative candidates. But this year the State Board of Elections loosened up the write-in candidate rules. Although 14 of the write-in legislative candidates decided not to accept their nomination, the others did and will be on the November ballot — unless someone goes to court and wins a challenge to the board's advisory opinion on write-in votes. The opinion eliminates the threshold of write-in votes needed to win nomination (the number of signatures required on petitions to place a candidate on the primary ballot for nomination); one vote is enough if there is no opposition. The opinion also holds for other nominations, including write-in candidates for judges in judicial districts where a seat is open for election.

Write-in winners for both parties will face each other in November for the Senate seat in the 47th District where the only name in nomination on the printed primary ballot was the late Sen. Prescott Bloom (R-Peoria).

House write-in winners who accepted nomination

(November opponent in parentheses)

37th District

Democrat: George R. Behnle Jr., 2 votes (incumbent Loleta A. Didrickson, R)

50th District

Democrat: Michael Leo Sanders, 11 votes (incumbent Donald N. Hensel, R)

73rd District

Democrat: Joseph Leo Miller, 2 votes (Todd Sieben, R)

77th District

Republican: Gene Wolfe, 1 vote (incumbent Frank Giglio, R)

87th District

Democrat: Lloyd Metz, 1 vote (incumbent Thomas W. Ewing, R)

88th District

Democrat: Ken McCrady, 1 vote (incumbent Gordon L. Ropp, R)

101st District

Republican: Lee E. Sturgis Sr., 1 vote (incumbent John F. Dunn, D)

111th District

Republican: Kevin W. Sykes, 51 votes (incumbent Sam W. Wolf, D)

113th District

Republican: Winston Springer, 18 votes (incumbent Wyvetter H. Younge, D)

114th District

Senate write-in candidates who accepted nomination

(November opponent in parentheses)

20th District

Democrat: Daniel T. Smith, 1 vote (incumbent Beverly Fawell, R)

47th District

Republican: state Rep. Carl Hawkinson, 8,926

Democrat: Jack Cassidy, 345

ANSWER: By Joan A. Parker, election laws chair for the League of Women Voters of Illinois, at the April 14 State Board of Elections meeting to certify the results of the March 18 primary. McCrady was tied with three other candidates at one write-in vote apiece, and Hight was tied with six candidates, also with one vote each. With a single write-in vote and the luck of the draw by Parker of a numbered-ping-pong-balls-in-a-box lottery, McCrady and Hight won party nominations to seats in the Illinois General Assembly. Hight officially declined the nomination, but McCrady accept his, according to the State Board of Elections.

34/June 1986/Illinois Issues