This spring, volunteers gathered over 2,800 signatures to put Jordan Villas on the ballot for Working Class Party in the 12th Illinois State Senate District – about double the number of signatures required by law.
But someone spent a lot of time and money to challenge WCP's right to be on the ballot, asserting that more than half the signatures were not valid. Similar challenges were lodged against most Illinois candidates not running with a major party, and against many candidates for the Chicago school board. These challenges particularly fell on candidates who had gathered signatures in working class areas.
The challenge against Working Class Party ultimately nullified the signatures of more than 1,400 people and overruled the voice of the more than 2,800 overall who signed to say they agreed that working class people need their own political voice.
For weeks, Working Class Party volunteers worked to overcome this challenge, looking for signatures WCP could legally recover. But in the end, according to the rules of this democratic
system, WCP came up short – by less than 50 signatures.
Despite this defeat, the campaign to put Villas on the ballot was still well worth it for those who think the working class needs its own political party.
All the petitioning that WCP volunteers carried out was campaigning for Working Class Party. People in this district can still vote for Working Class Party candidate Ed Hershey for U.S. House in the 4th Illinois Congressional District. He is on the ballot because WCP got over 5% of the vote two years ago.
Plus, everyone around this campaign learned a little bit about how the capitalists' democracy works!