Libertarian Party is not an established party in McHenry County, judge rules

A McHenry County judge has ruled that the Libertarian Party of Illinois is not an “established political party” in the county and will not be permitted to have candidates on ballots for the March primaries.

Judge Kevin Costello filed his written ruling Tuesday after a hearing earlier that day prompted by a complaint filed by McHenry County Clerk Joe Tirio.

Tirio, a Republican, filed the complaint against the Libertarian Party and its Illinois chairman, Bill Redpath. Tirio objected to the party’s claim that it is an established political party and entitled to placing candidates on the ballots when filing begins Monday for the primary election.

“The biggest difference between an established political party and a party that is not yet established is the number of signatures on nominating petitions that must be garnered in order to be placed on an election ballot,” according to the complaint.

Redpath said the party had hoped to be considered an established political party because members wanted to put three Libertarians on the March ballot: Jim Young of Crystal Lake for auditor, Kenneth Martin Mattes of Algonquin for circuit clerk, and Scott Zastrow of Algonquin for coroner.

Mattes ran and lost a bid for the County Board in 2022.

An established party would need a lower number of signatures for their candidates on the March ballots, which if they won would get them on the ballots for the general election in 2024.

Without being on the March ballot, the party would need to gather several thousand signatures from registered voters to appear on the ballots for the 2024 general election, Redpath said after the hearing.

Redpath represented himself and the party at Tuesday’s hearing.

He argued that the Libertarian Party, which stands for economic and personal freedoms while taking conservative positions on social issues, is established based on results of the 2020 election.

In the general election in 2020, Libertarian candidates for auditor and coroner each secured more than 25% of the vote in their races against the Republican who won, Shannon Teresi and Michael Rein, respectively. No Democrat ran for either seat that year.

However, in order to be considered an established party for the 2024 election cycle, the party would have had to maintain more than 5% of the vote in the 2022 election cycle, which it did not, McHenry County Assistant State’s Attorney Tom Cahill argued.

Redpath, however, argued that the specific offices for which the two Libertarian candidates ran in 2020 were not up for reelection in 2022, and therefore the party still maintains as an established party.

Young ran for treasurer in 2022 and lost but garnered little more than 3% of the vote, Redpath said.

“The court declines to adopt Redpath’s tortured interpretation of [the statute],” Costello wrote in his ruling. “While the terms of certain offices (in this case auditor and coroner) may extend past the 2022 election cycle (i.e., the coroner is not up for reelection until 2024), that does not change the fact that there have been general or consolidated elections in between.”

The law, Costello added, “makes it clear that in order to maintain ‘established political party’ status in a political subdivision (here, McHenry County), a political party must have at least one of its candidates receive in excess of 5% of the vote in each general election. That did not happen here.”

The one-week filing period for the March 19 primary election begins at 8 a.m. Monday and ends at 5 p.m. Dec. 4.