Naperville referendum proposal was news to Will County
More than 27,000 Naperville voters in Will County would not have cast ballots on the smart meter advisory referendum question, even if a judge allowed it on the March 20 ballot, officials said Tuesday.
Will County Clerk Nancy Schultz Voots said she is signing off on all Will County ballots Wednesday afternoon and they would not have included the Naperville question because no one asked that it be included.
The anti-smart meter group, which opposes the use of wireless meters to track electricity use, sought to ask voters, “Shall the City of Naperville immediately and permanently stop the implementation of the $22 million smart meter project and dismantle all related equipment?”
A Naperville Electoral Board ruled Jan. 12 that the group lacked enough signatures to get the question on the ballot and on Tuesday a DuPage Circuit Court judge agreed.
“I’m aware of the question and the appeal but none of that matters here because the filers never bothered to file the question in Will County,” Scultz Voots said. “We knew the question existed and we were expecting it up until deadline at the end of the day on Jan. 12. But it never showed up.”
Cathy Santos, legal assistant for the filers’ attorney Doug Ibendahl, said the group was waiting for Tuesday’s ruling before filing the paperwork in Will County.
“If the ruling goes in favor of the question, Voots will get a judge’s order for the question to be printed,” Santos said. “And if the ruling doesn’t go our way, we’ll be in appellate court and we’ll see how that goes.”
But Will County Chief Deputy Clerk Judy Wiedmeyer, who runs the county’s election services department, said the referendum process requires any questions to be filed by the Jan. 12 deadline.
“If it’s being objected to, fine, whatever, but you still have to file it with us by the deadline first and then let it follow its course,” Wiedmeyer said.
Wiedmeyer said there are 27,147 Naperville voters registered in Will County.