IT WOULD HAVE TO BE A PROTEST VOTE. Earlier this week, I issued an invitation to Illinois voters.

Write in Stephen Karlson for governor.

He doesn't claim he could do a better job. But he couldn't do any worse.

I did a little research on Illinois election law, which appears not to provide for write-in candidacies in the general election. The election guide includes this language early on:

OFFICERS TO BE NOMINATED AT THE GENERAL PRIMARY AND ELECTED AT THE GENERAL ELECTION

That language suggests that a candidate for statewide office must go through the primary to be placed on the general election ballot. The language on write-in procedures also appears to apply to the primary.

A write-in candidate must file a notarized "Declaration of Intent to be a Write-In Candidate" no later than 5:00 p.m. on the Tuesday immediately prior to the election. The declaration must be filed with the proper election authority or authorities in those jurisdictions in which he or she is seeking to be a write-in candidate. Declaration of Intent forms are NOT TO BE FILED with the State Board of Elections. (10 ILCS 5/7-59, 17-16.1, 18-9.1)

The "Declaration of Intent to be a Write-in Candidate" form can be obtained from the election authority’s office, i.e., the county clerk or board of elections commissioners.

In practice, this means a person running a legal write-in campaign must file declarations of intent with each county's clerk or board. The next paragraph is rather interesting.

To qualify as a candidate for an established political party in a General Election, a write-in candidate at a Primary Election for that party must receive the number of votes that is equal to or greater than the number of signatures required on a petition for that office if the number of candidates whose names appear on the primary ballot is less than the number of persons the party is entitled to nominate or elect to that office at the Primary Election.

The paragraph does not always mean that a properly-declared write-in candidate who wins a primary with a small turnout will NOT be certified as that party's nominee, but it often does. There are no paragraphs that lay out a write-in procedure for the general election, or for an independent candidate not running on a slate of independent candidates (which is effectively a political party.)

The petition criteria for a regular ballot entry make for some interesting reading. It is possible for a declared candidate of an "established party" to be placed on the primary ballot with as few as 500 valid signatures on a nominating petition. (That should give comfort to people who fear that one could get a candidate on the Democratic ballot by leaving a petition in a faculty common room.) On the other hand, a declared "independent" candidate or candidate of a "new" party (and there are precise definitions for both of these) may be obligated to collect no fewer than 25,000 valid signatures in order to be placed on the primary ballot. Bipartisanship (n): the collusion by which elected officials keep some of the rents for themselves.

I'll keep the protest vote option open, but I'll understand if nobody exercises it.