On November 23, a Circuit Court in Cook County, Illinois, refused to grant an injunction that would have required election officials to recognize the Green Party as a ballot-qualified party in the four U.S. House districts and four legislative districts in which it polled over 5% in 2010. The party is appealing. Here is the 8-page decision.

Illinois election law says if a party got 5% of the vote in the previous election for any partisan office, then it is a ballot-qualified party automatically in the next election for that office. But election officials believe that if the partisan office is a district office, and the district boundaries change, that status lapses. In 2010, the Green Party polled 34.5% for State Representative in the 39th district in Chicago, and 25.6% for State Representative in the 115th district in Carbondale, and 17.4% for State Representative in the 105th district in Pontiac. However, even the Green Party’s status in those districts will go unrecognized, unless the party’s appeal changes the legal outcome.