Ballot objection process needs fixing

It’s that remarkable time of year again, where the winter holidays run simultaneously with the ballot objection process for local elections. (“Toni Preckwinkle drops challenge to Susana Mendoza’s mayoral petitions,” Dec. 20). It’s that time when objections to candidate petitions are filed, kicking in an absurd statewide tradition of knocking off opponents for elected office.

Illinois politicians, usually experienced incumbents, wage campaigns at the ballot access stage through objections, with the result that voters have fewer choices on their ballots, if not the more extreme and counterintuitive result in democracy of uncontested races. Other states and cities have adopted electronic signature gathering, via app or website. These tools achieve efficiencies in the ballot process.

For example, Denver launched e-Sign, the first mobile petition signing application, which can be downloaded and used to collect signatures on a tablet leased from or registered by the election authority. Signature gatherers can check voter signatures against public data for valid voter registration instantly and prior to the signer signing the petition. It has reduced invalid signatures from 35 percent to as low as 1 percent.

Illinois’ ballot access system should be modernized to reduce the instances of ballot objections, reduce the number of uncontested seats, usher in a culture of engaging more citizens to run for local office, and achieve diverse voices on our ballots. — Maryam Judar, executive director and community lawyer, Citizen Advocacy Center, Elmhurst