What slating does not do is put anyone on the ballot. A slated candidate still has to circulate and file a valid nominating petition, survive any objections, and win the primary. Slating brings the organization's help: circulators, introductions, doors and a sample ballot. The rest of this explainer covers who is in the room, how a typical process runs, what slating means for petitions, and how party organizations keep the process organized.
For how campaigns and parties keep relationships like these in one place, see our guide to a political campaign CRM.
Who decides: the committeepersons
The county central committee is made up of the party's township, precinct and ward committeepersons in the county (10 ILCS 5/7-8(d)). That committee is where the party organizes in each county.
Outside Cook County, each party's primary voters elect one precinct committeeperson per precinct every two years. In Cook County, voters elect a ward committeeperson in each Chicago ward and a township committeeperson in each suburban township, every four years (10 ILCS 5/7-8(b)).
Why weight matters
Votes on the county central committee are weighted. "Each precinct committeeperson shall have one vote for each ballot voted in his precinct by the primary electors of his party at the primary at which he was elected" (7-8(d)). Ward and township committeepersons vote by the ballots cast in their ward or township at the preceding General Assembly primary. The same weighting appears on municipal central committees (7-8(h)), multi-township central committees (7-8(c)) and, outside Cook, judicial subcircuit committees (7-8(g-1)).
Whether a particular slating vote uses weighted votes depends on the organization's rules. Ask your county or township party how its slating votes are counted. Even where the formal vote is informal, the committeepersons with the largest turnout tend to carry the most influence in the room.
How a slating process typically runs
Every organization is different, but most follow some version of these stages. Treat this as a description of common practice, not a rule.
- The organization announces the offices. It lists which offices it will consider slating for in the coming primary and how candidates can apply.
- Candidates come forward. They submit a short statement, a questionnaire or a letter of interest, depending on the party.
- Candidates meet committeepersons. This is the long middle stage: coffees, township meetings, phone calls. Our post on why candidates court committeepersons covers it from the candidate's side.
- A slating session. Candidates speak, answer questions and leave the room. Committeepersons discuss and decide, by vote or by consensus.
- The slate is announced. The organization tells its members and the public whom it supports.
- The organization goes to work. Committeepersons circulate petitions, introduce candidates in their precincts and, later, carry the slate to the doors.
Your county party can tell you when its process starts. Ask early: a slated candidate wants the organization's circulators from the first day petitions can be carried.
Which races slating applies to
Slating is about party primaries, so it matters where a party label appears on the ballot.
- Partisan races. County, legislative and judicial offices on the general primary ballot. On the 2027 consolidated calendar, partisan municipal offices in towns over 5,000 run on the February 23, 2027 track, along with other offices on that track (filing was October 19 to 26, 2026).
- Nonpartisan races. School board candidates run on a nonpartisan basis, with no party label on the ballot (2027 Candidate's Guide). Check with your election authority whether a given local office carries a party label. A party organization may still have views on these races, but where no party label appears, there is no party primary to slate for.
- Independent candidates. Independents run under the heading "Independent" and are, by definition, outside a party's slating process.
What slating means for petitions
The single most practical benefit of being slated is help with signatures. Committeepersons know their streets and which doors belong to the party's primary voters. But the petition rules apply to slated and unslated candidates alike.
Signers. Party primary petitions are signed "by qualified primary electors residing in the political division for which the nomination is sought in their own proper persons only" (10 ILCS 5/7-10). A qualified primary elector may not sign petitions for, or be a candidate in, the primary of more than one party (7-10). Voters may sign for as many candidates of the same established party as they like, including more than one for the same office.
Circulators. A circulator may not circulate for more than one established political party, and may not circulate for an established party and also for an independent or new-party candidate (10 ILCS 5/10-4). A circulator may circulate for more than one candidate for the same office if the candidates are of the same established party (2027 Candidate's Guide). That is why a committeeperson can carry sheets for an entire slate.
Paper. Every candidate petition in Illinois is signed in ink on the official form and carries a notarized circulator statement. There is no electronic option.
Margin. Objections can strike signatures that do not hold up. There is no rule for how many extra to collect, but many campaigns aim for 1.5 to 2 times the minimum as common practice.
Being slated is not filing. The organization's support does not replace the Statement of Candidacy, the Statement of Economic Interests receipt or the petition itself. Every candidate files their own.
For party organizations: keeping slating organized
A slating season produces a lot of loose information: who applied, which committeepersons each candidate met, who asked tough questions, who promised to circulate for whom, and which precincts have sheets. Most of it lives in email threads and notebooks.
Keep one record per person, and let every touch land on it. In CoreCNX, each candidate who applies and each committeeperson in the organization gets a single contact record with a timeline. Email events, text replies, chatbot leads and door results write to that timeline, so when the slating committee asks "who has this candidate actually met with?" or "which committeepersons said they would circulate?", the answer is on the person's record rather than in someone's inbox. For a county party, the same records carry forward to the next cycle, so the organization does not start from zero when a new set of candidates comes forward.
The CNX suite is designed so that the rest of the work feeds those records. Beacon (beaconcnx.com) handles the doors when committeepersons carry the slate into their precincts, and CampaignCNX+ (campaigncnx.com) handles two-way texting with the people who have agreed to receive texts. Our post on running the county party's data in one CRM covers the organization-wide setup, and our political page shows how CoreCNX fits a party or campaign.
For candidates: what to ask before slating
If you are planning to seek a party's support, ask the organization these questions early:
- Does the county, township or ward party slate for the office I am seeking?
- When does the process start, and how do I apply?
- How are slating votes counted, and are they weighted?
- What does the organization provide to slated candidates: circulators, introductions, literature, doors?
- What does the organization expect from slated candidates in return?
Then keep a record of every committeeperson you meet. Slating decisions are made by people who remember who followed up.
FAQ
Is slating required to run in a party primary? No. Any eligible candidate who files a valid petition can run. Slating is the organization's endorsement, not a filing requirement.
Who votes on the slate? Usually the committeepersons of the organization doing the slating. The exact process, including whether votes are weighted, depends on that organization's rules.
Can a committeeperson circulate for every candidate on the slate? Yes, if they are all of the same established party. A circulator may not circulate for more than one established party (10 ILCS 5/10-4).
Do parties slate school board candidates? School board races are nonpartisan, with no party label on the ballot, so there is no party primary to slate for.
Run slating from one record
Slating season is a relationship season, and relationships are easy to lose track of. Start a 14-day CoreCNX trial and give every candidate and committeeperson one record the whole organization can see.