<div dir="ltr">Hello everyone,<br><div><br></div><div>This will be my last email from <a href="mailto:chair@lpillinois.org">chair@lpillinois.org</a>. I wanted to address two things.</div><div><br></div><div>First, many of you have probably heard that our Secretary of State candidate Jesse White withdrew from the race before the signature inspections began yesterday. While we can't say much about how this decision was made, here's what I am able to tell you. We made this decision for three primary reasons...</div><div><br></div><div>1) It became apparent there was a high likelihood that we would lose the objection. This was the gut feeling from our attorney and others close to the process. I want to be absolutely clear - We had enough valid signatures as required by law. Unfortunately, the objection process is politicized, and we were going up against the largest, most well-funded political machine in the state. I won't talk about specifics regarding <i>why </i>we thought we would lose. Those details may come out when we know what we can and cannot say. With a high likelihood that we would lose and facing the possibility of spending thousands of dollars to continue, we decided to pull the plug.</div><div><br></div><div>2) It's the opinion of our legal counsel that Jesse achieving 5% would not get us statewide ballot access. Illinois election law is vague and contradictory (purposefully). Again, I'll spare you the dirty details and legal arguments (although I'd love to have that conversation with you if you'd like to have it), but our lawyer believes only our Governor candidate can achieve statewide ballot access. While this is not the only interpretation of the law, it is consistent with the language in law. With the possibility of spending thousands of dollars defending signatures for a candidate who possibly wouldn't even get us ballot access, we decided it was not a worthwhile endeavor.</div><div><br></div><div>3) Jesse's withdrawal allows us to appoint a new candidate if we would like to. That will be the responsibility of the new board to consider.</div><div><br></div><div>There may be more details we can release later, but that's what I can tell you right now. Chase, Matt, Russ, Brett, and the rest of the new Board will be in touch with details as they become available.</div><div><br></div><div>Finally, I'd like to thank everyone for their help and support in my term as Chair. It was not always easy, but each of you helped lessen the burden and made it more enjoyable. You can still reach me via email at <a href="mailto:stevesuess@gmail.com">stevesuess@gmail.com</a>. I'm happy to help where I can. I'm not going anywhere - I was just elected the Chair of the McLean County Libertarian Party last night at our county convention.</div><div><br></div><div>See you soon,</div><div><br></div><div>Steve</div><br clear="all"><div><br></div>-- <br><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_signature" data-smartmail="gmail_signature"><div dir="ltr"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="color:rgb(255,255,255);font-size:medium;vertical-align:-webkit-baseline-middle;font-family:Arial"><tbody><tr><td><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="vertical-align:-webkit-baseline-middle;font-family:Arial"><tbody><tr><td style="vertical-align:top"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="vertical-align:-webkit-baseline-middle;font-family:Arial"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align:center"><img width="130" style="max-width:128px;display:block" src="https://ci3.googleusercontent.com/mail-sig/AIorK4x_QHJe7CXw5dTr1yA9kXcnQsxiNZOLDpr5YHmR-CWT99Xo5jwJHltKPj6DapWDSNd7WpzY4Kw"></td></tr><tr><td height="30"></td></tr><tr><td style="text-align:center"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="vertical-align:-webkit-baseline-middle;font-family:Arial;display:inline-block"><tbody><tr><td><a href="https://www.facebook.com/lpillinois" color="#FFAE24" style="display:inline-block;padding:0px;background-color:rgb(255,174,36)" target="_blank"><img src="https://cdn2.hubspot.net/hubfs/53/tools/email-signature-generator/icons/facebook-icon-2x.png" alt="facebook" color="#FFAE24" height="24" style="max-width:135px;display:block"></a></td><td width="5"><div></div></td><td><a href="https://twitter.com/lpillinois" color="#FFAE24" style="display:inline-block;padding:0px;background-color:rgb(255,174,36)" target="_blank"><img src="https://cdn2.hubspot.net/hubfs/53/tools/email-signature-generator/icons/twitter-icon-2x.png" alt="twitter" color="#FFAE24" height="24" style="max-width:135px;display:block"></a></td><td width="5"><div></div></td><td><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/steve-suess-16704928/" color="#FFAE24" style="display:inline-block;padding:0px;background-color:rgb(255,174,36)" target="_blank"><img src="https://cdn2.hubspot.net/hubfs/53/tools/email-signature-generator/icons/linkedin-icon-2x.png" alt="linkedin" color="#FFAE24" height="24" style="max-width:135px;display:block"></a></td><td width="5"><div></div></td></tr></tbody></table></td></tr></tbody></table></td><td width="46"><div></div></td><td style="padding:0px;vertical-align:middle"><h3 color="#356091" style="margin:0px;font-size:18px;color:rgb(53,96,145)">Steve Suess</h3><p color="#356091" style="margin:0px;color:rgb(53,96,145);font-size:14px;line-height:22px">Chair, Libertarian Party of Illinois</p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="vertical-align:-webkit-baseline-middle;font-family:Arial;width:226.812px"><tbody><tr><td height="30"></td></tr><tr><td color="#ffae24" height="1" style="width:226.812px;border-bottom:1px solid rgb(255,174,36);border-left:none;display:block"></td></tr><tr><td height="30"></td></tr></tbody></table><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="vertical-align:-webkit-baseline-middle;font-family:Arial"><tbody><tr height="25" style="vertical-align:middle"><td width="30" style="vertical-align:middle"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="vertical-align:-webkit-baseline-middle;font-family:Arial"><tbody><tr><td style="vertical-align:bottom"><span color="#ffae24" width="11" style="display:block;background-color:rgb(255,174,36)"><img src="https://cdn2.hubspot.net/hubfs/53/tools/email-signature-generator/icons/phone-icon-2x.png" color="#ffae24" width="13" style="display:block"></span></td></tr></tbody></table></td><td style="padding:0px;color:rgb(53,96,145)"><a href="tel:815+483+4043" color="#356091" style="color:rgb(53,96,145);font-size:12px" target="_blank">815 483 4043</a></td></tr><tr height="25" style="vertical-align:middle"><td width="30" style="vertical-align:middle"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="vertical-align:-webkit-baseline-middle;font-family:Arial"><tbody><tr><td style="vertical-align:bottom"><span color="#ffae24" width="11" style="display:block;background-color:rgb(255,174,36)"><img src="https://cdn2.hubspot.net/hubfs/53/tools/email-signature-generator/icons/email-icon-2x.png" color="#ffae24" width="13" style="display:block"></span></td></tr></tbody></table></td><td style="padding:0px"><a href="mailto:chair@lpillinois.org" color="#356091" style="color:rgb(53,96,145);font-size:12px" target="_blank">chair@lpillinois.org</a></td></tr><tr height="25" style="vertical-align:middle"><td width="30" style="vertical-align:middle"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="vertical-align:-webkit-baseline-middle;font-family:Arial"><tbody><tr><td style="vertical-align:bottom"><span color="#ffae24" width="11" style="display:block;background-color:rgb(255,174,36)"><img src="https://cdn2.hubspot.net/hubfs/53/tools/email-signature-generator/icons/link-icon-2x.png" color="#ffae24" width="13" style="display:block"></span></td></tr></tbody></table></td><td style="padding:0px"><a href="https://www.lpillinois.org/" color="#356091" style="color:rgb(53,96,145);font-size:12px" target="_blank">www.lpillinois.org</a></td></tr><tr height="25" style="vertical-align:middle"><td width="30" style="vertical-align:middle"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="vertical-align:-webkit-baseline-middle;font-family:Arial"><tbody><tr><td style="vertical-align:bottom"><span color="#ffae24" width="11" style="display:block;background-color:rgb(255,174,36)"><img src="https://cdn2.hubspot.net/hubfs/53/tools/email-signature-generator/icons/address-icon-2x.png" color="#ffae24" width="13" style="display:block"></span></td></tr></tbody></table></td><td style="padding:0px"><span color="#356091" style="font-size:12px;color:rgb(53,96,145)">PO Box 3611, Bloomington, IL 61702</span></td></tr></tbody></table><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="vertical-align:-webkit-baseline-middle;font-family:Arial"><tbody><tr><td height="30"></td></tr></tbody></table><a href="https://www.hubspot.com/email-signature-generator?utm_source=create-signature" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="font-size:12px;display:block;color:rgb(53,96,145)" target="_blank"><br></a></td></tr></tbody></table></td></tr><tr><td><span style="display:block"><a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.lpillinois.org/" color="#6A78D1" style="border-width:initial;border-style:none;border-color:initial;display:inline-block;background-color:transparent;color:rgb(255,255,255);font-weight:700;text-align:center;line-height:1;font-size:12px;border-radius:3px" target="_blank"><img style="max-width:728px" src="https://ci3.googleusercontent.com/mail-sig/AIorK4yBu7aIovJTxGmK4ZW_kKkAwBoMJH5eOjftWCDinXI_HKxIIiqJedTjDTybwpZEcWSweEyZfU0"></a></span><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="vertical-align:-webkit-baseline-middle;font-family:Arial"><tbody><tr><td height="30"></td></tr><tr></tr></tbody></table></td></tr></tbody></table></div></div></div>