(Related post: Topinka, Jim Ryan among expected filers)

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. - Today is the first day of candidate filing for Illinois’ Feb. 2 primary election, a bi-annual Springfield ritual that has candidates or their representatives (usually the latter) lining up in the wee hours “like anxious concert-goers,” as Springfield political columnist Bernard Schoenburg puts it.

The idea is to get on the top of each contest’s ballot, which is listed on a first-come, first-served basis. The problem is, everyone who is there at the 8 a.m. opening time of the State Board of Elections (more than 500 of them this morning, according to the office) gets put in a lottery to determine which of them gets listed first. Since pretty much everyone running for anything shows up (or sends in their people), the whole system more or less is lottery-based.

Candidates have until 5 p.m. on Nov. 2 to file.

Illinois used to have its primaries in mid-March, but moved them up in the last election with the stated intent of making sure Illinois would help put Chicagoan Barack Obama over the top in the presidential primary (it did).