Hero v. Lake County Election Board

Dist. Ct. did not err in dismissing plaintiff’s action seeking declaration that his rights were violated by defendant-Election Board that struck his name from 2019 Republican primary ballot, under circumstances where plaintiff had previously supported two independent candidates against two Republican candidates, and where, because plaintiff had done so, state chairman of Republican Party banned plaintiff from Republican Party for ten-year period. While plaintiff had met all statutory requirements for appearing on Republican Party primary ballot, defendant could properly remove plaintiff from Republican Party ballot, since: (1) decision to strike plaintiff from ballot imposed only minor restriction on his ballot access, where plaintiff had alternative means to access general election ballot as independent or write-in candidate; and (2) state has valid interest in protecting party’s right to determine its own membership and limit its candidates to those party members.