Monday marked the deadline for independent or non-major party candidates to file for election, and several submitted petitions to appear on the Nov. 8 ballot.

Illinois Libertarians filed more than double the number of signatures required.

Kent McMillen, 54, a paralegal from Melrose Park, is running for U.S. Senate, and Claire Ball, 33, of Addison is entering the election for state comptroller.

Brian Lambrecht, Ball’s husband and field operations director for the Illinois Libertarian Party, said the petitions will also serve to add to the ballot former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson – the party’s presidential candidate – and his running mate, former Massachusetts Gov. William Weld.

Some Green and Constitution party candidates also filed.

Lambrecht lamented the “disgusting” rule that statewide independent candidates or those outside established parties need five times the valid signatures to run – 25,000 instead of 5,000.

And he said the party turned in 53,000 signatures in order to have enough to withstand a likely challenge.

McMillen joins a race that already includes Republican U.S. Sen. Mark Kirk of Highland Park and Democratic U.S. Rep. Tammy Duckworth of Hoffman Estates. Ball enters a field that includes GOP Comptroller Leslie Munger and the Democratic challenger, Chicago City Clerk Susana Mendoza.

McMillen said he wants to eventually abolish the Internal Revenue Service and federal departments of commerce, transportation and education. He also wants to transition away from the Social Security System to personal savings accounts for younger Americans.

Asked about people who don’t save enough for retirement, McMillen said, “If you want freedom, you have to have responsibility as well.”

He said the federal education department “doesn’t educate anybody,” and as for the commerce agency, “Businesses should deal with each other. (The Department of) Commerce kind of promotes certain types of businesses at the expense of others.”

Asked about transportation, McMillen said there should just be a “very small” oversight agency to help coordinate projects carried out by the private sector.

A news release said McMillen would also propose “we begin closing our military bases overseas and bringing the troops home.”

They wouldn’t all close “on Day 1,” he told reporters at the Statehouse, but “I think we have too many soldiers in places like Germany, Japan, Italy.”

McMillen works for the Vedder Price law firm in Chicago.

Ball stressed that she is an accountant seeking the financial job. She is employed by U.S. Cellular and said she is working toward being a certified public accountant. She said not being a Democrat or Republican would give her independence.

“I don’t care what party you’re from,” she said, “if you play funny with our money, I’ll call you out on it.”

She said she is not, at this time, for combining offices of state comptroller and treasurer because the segregation of financial duties can help avoid fraud.

Lambrecht said Libertarians generally believe people should be allowed to live life as they see fit, while not hurting others -- being fiscally responsible and socially tolerant.

He said he’s among the more “energetic Libertarians,” and as he puts it, “We believe gay married couples should have the right to own guns to defend their marijuana plants.”

Meanwhile, Green Party candidates who filed Monday included Jill Stein of Lexington, Massachusetts, for president; William Kreml of Columbia, South Carolina, for vice president; Scott Summers of Harvard for the U.S. Senate; and Tim Curtin of Hillside for comptroller.

Summers, 67, the public guardian and public administrator in McHenry County, said the party turned in 53,000 signatures.

He said Green Party members don’t take corporate contributions and “stand up for the America that the other parties seem to have forgotten ... decent people who struggle every day.”

Frank Fluckinger of Layton, Utah, filed as a Constitution Party candidate for president, and Chad Koppie of Gilberts is the party’s candidate for U.S. Senate.

Koppie, 78, a retired airline pilot who is pro-life and calls himself “a very conservative person,” has run for U.S. Senate three times before and got nearly 14 percent of the Republican primary vote for governor when he challenged George Ryan for the nomination in 1998.

Koppie has used TV ads and advertising trucks to show images of aborted fetuses in past campaigns. He said his petitions amounted to “just a few pages,” but “sometimes they don’t challenge,” and that allows a filer to get on the ballot.

Also filing for U.S. Senate, as an independent, was Eric Conklin of LeRoy.

And under the Socialist Party banner, the presidential ticket of Emidio Soltysik of Los Angeles and Angela Nicole Walker of Milwaukee filed.

Objections can be filed through July 5.

— Contact Bernard Schoenburg: bernard.schoenburg@sj-r.com, 788-1540, twitter.com/bschoenburg.