No. 05-4355 DAVID LEE, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. JOHN KEITH, in his official capacity as Chairman of the Illinois State Board of Elections, JESSE SMART, in his official capacity as Vice-Chairman of the Illinois State Board of Elections, WANDA REDNOUR, in her official capacity as a member of the Illinois State Board of Elections, et al., Defendants-Appellees. ____________ Appeal from the United States District Court for the Central District of Illinois. No. 04 C 3042—Jeanne E. Scott, Judge. ____________ ARGUED JUNE 9, 2006—DECIDED SEPTEMBER 18, 2006 ____________

Before RIPPLE, MANION, and SYKES, Circuit Judges. SYKES, Circuit Judge. In 1975 and 1979 Illinois adopted two significant changes to its ballot access laws for inde- pendent candidates. First, the deadline for independents to file nominating petitions was pushed back from 92 days before the November general election to the same deadline that applies to partisan candidates—92 days before the March primary, or 323 days before the November general 2 No. 05-4355 election. Second, the signature requirement for independent candidates was doubled, from 5% of the vote in the last general election for the office sought to 10%. These changes had a dramatic impact. Before 1975, independent candi- dates for the state legislature qualified for the ballot occasionally, though not frequently. Since 1980, how- ever—the year following the second of these changes—not a single independent candidate for state legislative office has qualified for ballot access. David Lee wanted to run as an independent candidate for the Illinois State Senate in 2004. When it became clear to Lee that he could not muster the required number of signatures by the deadline so distant from the general election, he abandoned his campaign bid and filed this lawsuit against the members of the Illinois State Board of Elections to challenge the ballot access restrictions. He asserted that the restrictions violated his First and Four- teenth Amendment rights as a candidate and voter by erecting an unconstitutionally high barrier to ballot access for independent candidates running for the state legislature. The district court upheld the challenged statutes. We reverse. In combination, the ballot access require- ments for independent legislative candidates in Illi- nois—the early filing deadline, the 10% signature require- ment, and the additional statutory restriction that disquali- fies anyone who signs an independent candidate’s nominat- ing petition from voting in the primary—operate to uncon- stitutionally burden the freedom of political association guaranteed by the First and Fourteenth Amendments. Ballot access barriers this high—they are the most restric- tive in the nation and have effectively eliminated independ- ent legislative candidacies from the Illinois political scene for a quarter of a century—are not sustainable based on the state’s asserted interest in deterring party splintering, factionalism, and frivolous candidacies. No. 05-4355 3

I. Background The relevant facts are not in dispute. Illinois law requires an independent candidate for the General Assembly—the State Senate and House of Representatives—to qualify for the general election ballot by collecting the signatures of registered voters in his or her legislative district equal to at least 10% of the number of votes cast in that district during the last general election. See 10 ILL. COMP. STAT. 5/10-3 (2004). Anyone who signs an independent’s petition is disqualified from voting in the primary election. See 10 ILL. COMP. STAT. 5/7-43(c). Aspiring independent candidates must file their nominating petition