Adlai Stevenson to Remain on Illinois Ballot

The state elections board today voted to allow gubernatorial challenger Adlai E. Stevenson to remain on the Nov. 4 ballot as the candidate of the Illinois Solidarity Party.

The Board of Elections voted unanimously to reject a challenge to Stevenson’s place on the ballot, made on the grounds that his party’s name was similar to that of another party and that this would confuse voters.

Stevenson had resigned as the Democratic nominee rather than run on the Democratic ticket with two supporters of political extremist Lyndon LaRouche who won nominations in the party’s March primary.

Stevenson then formed the Illinois Solidarity Party and filed as its gubernatorial candidate, challenging Republican Gov. James R. Thompson, who is seeking an unprecedented fourth term in office.

The board ruled on a challenge brought by the Rev. Charles Koen of Cairo, in Southern Illinois, a civil rights activist also running for governor.

Koen objected because a party in the suburban Chicago village of Posen is named the Solidarity Party. He contended that Stevenson’s use of the name would confuse voters.

But the board said that, among other things, there is no municipal election scheduled in Posen this year. Kelly Welsh, an attorney for the Stevenson campaign, also told the board that none of the objections to the use of the name came from voters in Posen.

Koen is a gubernatorial candidate of the Illinois Independent Party. The state Democratic Party, with support from the Stevenson campaign, has filed objections to the appearance of Koen’s party on the ballot in November. They contend that he submitted fewer than 9,000 of the 25,000 signatures required to get the party on the ballot.

Mark Fairchild and Janice Hart, both LaRouche supporters, won nominations in March to run as the Democratic candidates for lieutenant governor and secretary of state, respectively.