Election Board Kicks 2 Latino Independents Off Ballot For ‘Chuy’ Garcia’s Congressional Seat 41%
By Francia Garcia Hernandez59%
7/21/2026, 8:43:00 PM
BS Summary: This article contains 23 faulty reasoning types, including Self-Serving Bias, Appeal to Emotion, and Post Hoc (False Cause), with Confirmation Bias as the most egregious example at 14.6% saturation with 128 hits. Analysis detected 1,002 faulty-reasoning hits from 876 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 45.7% and a BS Rank of 41% (12,945 of 21,887 articles). This article is better (less manipulative) than 59.10% of the article peer group.
LOOP – Independent candidates Ald.
Byron Sigcho-Lopez (25th) and Mayra Macias will not appear on the November ballot for U.S.
Rep.
Jesus “Chuy” Garcia’s seat, the Illinois State Board of Elections ruled Tuesday.
The ruling paves the way for Democrat Patty Garcia, Garcia’s chief of staff, to run in a less competitive race.
Independent candidate Chris Getty remains on the ballot, along with a Republican and a Working Class Party candidate.
The State Officers Electoral Board unanimously voted in favor of recommendations to strike both candidates’ names from the ballot on grounds that they failed to collect the minimum number of signatures for independent candidates.
The two candidates have slammed the process as part of a coordinated effort by Patty Garcia and the congressman, who are not related.
Rep.
Garcia suddenly dropped his reelection campaign last year in a move that gave his chief of staff a head start on filing petitions and potentially a clear path to Congress.
“It is a sad day for democracy,” Macias said at a press conference after the board’s meeting.
Last week, hearing officers Joseph Craven and Barbara Goodman concluded that neither Macias nor Sigcho-Lopez filed enough valid signatures — each needed nearly 11,000 — to run as independents.
The decision came after three people objected to thousands of signatures on the petitions for both candidates, an effort the two say was coordinated by the outgoing congressman .
After the state board’s review, Macias fell short by 1,058 signatures while Sigcho-Lopez lacked 1,222, said Marni Malowit, counsel for the state board of elections.
Edward Mullen, the attorney for the three objectors, argued before the board that Macias and Sigcho-Lopez had deficiencies in their petition signatures and circulators.
Mullen said Macias, who requested an extension to save some of the challenged signatures but was denied, should have had enough time while the state authority conducted its examination.
Like Sigcho-Lopez, Macias failed to gather enough evidence to save challenged signatures, Mullen argued.
But the two candidates said their campaigns failed due to machine tactics coordinated by Patty Garcia and the outgoing congressman to keep them off the ballot.
They vowed to continue fighting for voters of the majority-Latino district to have a “real democracy.”
“The rules were put in place to safeguard democracy, and yet these very rules are currently doing the opposite,” Macias said.
Kait Sweeney, spokesperson for Patty Garcia, said that her candidate got well more than the 697 valid signatures needed for a major party candidate.
“Petition review is a normal part of the democratic process and the Board of Elections made its decision based on the law,” Sweeney said in a statement.
“Patty earned her spot on the ballot the same way every candidate is supposed to: going door to door, talking to voters in this district, and turning in 2,500 real, valid signatures in just two days.
That’s what genuine community support looks like.”
Rep.
Garcia, through a spokesperson, declined to comment.
Andrew Finko, Sigcho-Lopez’s attorney, said his campaign is exploring legal options to challenge the Illinois election code, which sets an unnecessarily high burden on independent candidates.
Macias said she is also still exploring her options, but is considering opening an organization that focuses on accountability and civic engagement.
Sigcho-Lopez, currently the 25th Ward alderperson, did not rule out another run for City Council.
“Everything is under consideration,” he said.
The state officers electoral board on Tuesday responded to arguments made by Macias and Sigcho-Lopez by pointing to previous rulings that show it “errs on the side of putting people on the ballot.”
“We try very hard to make that happen, and I think you have been given every opportunity, and you have just come up short,” said chairwoman Laura Donahue to Macias.
Like the independent candidates, neighbors who attended the hearing condemned the last-minute maneuvering to help Patty Garcia make the ballot.
Then, they “manipulated” the system to keep the independent Latino candidates off the race, they said.
Patty Garcia, congressional candidate, attends as immigration advocates hold a press conference in Back-of-the-Yards in response to the uptick in federal agent activity in Chicago on July 9, 2026.
Credit: Colin Boyle/Block Club Chicago
“Congressman Garcia and Patty Garcia are two individuals hiding from the public, hiding from the issues in our community,” Sigcho-Lopez said.
Despite the ruling, Macias and Sigcho-Lopez said their campaign demonstrates thousands of neighbors in the district want “a real choice” in the election, but are being dismissed.
Further, Rep.
Garcia is disenfranchising Latino voters, they said.
“What a terrible legacy to leave behind,” Sigcho-Lopez said.
Macias described as “alarming” testimony by Manny Diaz, senior policy counsel to the congressman, that he collected evidence and affidavits to object to some of the people who circulated petitions for her campaign.
“We are intimidating folks into not voting,” Macias said.
Earlier this month, Macias filed an official ethics complaint to the House Ethics Committee and the Office of Congressional Conduct against Rep.
Garcia and his staff.
Macias and Sigcho-Lopez called on state legislators to change the state’s election rules that make it extremely challenging for independent candidates to get on the ballot and to update the state’s system for collecting petition signatures.
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100%flagged-word coverageLaura Donahue
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