Amendment to Illinois Election Code Extends Deadline for Filing Petitions

On December 2, 2012, Illinois Governor Pat Quinn signed into law Senate Bill 3338 (Public Act 97-1134), which amends the Illinois Election Code and impacts the filing deadline for candidate petitions. The amendment does not change the start date for candidates to file nominating petitions, but the Illinois State Board of Elections has confirmed that the amendment extends the filing deadline to December 26, 2012, at 5:00 p.m. This has raised questions as to whether petitions must be accepted on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day. It is our recommendation that you maintain hours as they have been previously scheduled and accept petitions during your previously scheduled hours of operation. If you were scheduled to be open during Christmas Eve or Christmas Day, you should accept petitions during those scheduled hours of operations. 

The extension of the filing period to December 26, 2012, should be widely publicized in the same manner as the original notice of filing dates was published. In addition, we recommend that you contact any known candidate for whom you have information and inform them of this change. 

For further information, please contact your regular Hinshaw attorney.

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This alert has been prepared by Hinshaw & Culbertson LLP to provide information on recent legal developments of interest to our readers. It is not intended to provide legal advice for a specific situation or to create an attorney-client relationship.