Illinois Statutes § 5/8-9 Filing procedures for nomination petitions

(1) Where the nomination is made for a legislative office, such petition for nomination shall be filed in the principal office of the State Board of Elections not more than 141 [113] and not less than 134 [106] days prior to the date of the primary.

(2) The State Board of Elections shall, upon receipt of each petition, endorse thereon the day and hour on which it was filed. Petitions filed by mail and received after midnight on the first day for filing and in the first mail delivery or pickup of that day, shall be deemed as filed as of 8:00 a.m. of that day or as of the normal opening hour of such day as the case may be, and all petitions received thereafter shall be deemed as filed in the order of actual receipt. However, 2 or more petitions filed within the last hour of the filing deadline shall be deemed to have been filed simultaneously. Where 2 or more petitions are received simultaneously, the State Board of Elections shall break ties and determine the order of filing, by means of a lottery as provided in Section 7-12 of this Code.

(3) Any person for whom a petition for nomination has been filed, may cause his name to be withdrawn by a request in writing, signed by him, duly acknowledged before an officer qualified to take acknowledgments of deeds, and filed in the principal or permanent branch office of the State Board of Elections not later than the date of certification of candidates for the general primary ballot, and no names so withdrawn shall be certified by the State Board of Elections to the county clerk, or printed on the primary ballot. If petitions for nomination have been filed for the same person with respect to more than one political party, his name shall not be certified nor printed on the primary ballot of any party. If petitions for nomination have been filed for the same person for 2 or more offices which are incompatible so that the same person could not serve in more than one of such offices if elected, that person must withdraw as a candidate for all but one of such offices within the 5 business days following the last day for petition filing. If he fails to withdraw as a candidate for all but one of such offices within such time, his name shall not be certified, nor printed on the primary ballot, for any office. For the purpose of the foregoing provisions, an office in a political party is not incompatible with any other office.

(4) If multiple sets of nomination papers are filed for a candidate to the same office, the State Board of Elections shall within 2 business days notify the candidate of his or her multiple petition filings and that the candidate has 3 business days after receipt of the notice to notify the State Board of Elections that he or she may cancel prior sets of petitions. If the candidate notifies the State Board of Elections the last set of petitions filed shall be the only petitions to be considered valid by the State Board of Elections. If the candidate fails to notify the State Board then only the first set of petitions filed shall be valid and all subsequent petitions shall be void.