Lines expected for first day of candidate filing
Starting today, candidates for various suburban municipal, park district, library and fire district offices will begin filing their nomination papers to get on the April 7 ballot.
For the first time, however, school board candidates must take their paperwork to a county clerk's office or, in the case of DuPage County, an election commission.
As a result, some clerks' offices are expecting long lines when they open for business.
"We are certainly expecting a significant number of people to file," said Lake County Clerk Carla Wyckoff, adding that most candidates file on the first day because they want the opportunity to get the top spot on the ballot.
Wyckoff and other election authorities say their offices are prepared to handle the crowds.
"It is what we do," said Robert Saar, executive director of the DuPage County Election Commission. "We understand how to handle the volume. We're quickly able to get information inputted into the system, verified and posted for everybody to see."
In Cook County, about 700 candidates from 145 suburban Cook school districts are expected to file before the weeklong filing period ends on Dec. 22.
To accommodate those candidates, the Cook County clerk's downtown Chicago office and its election warehouse on the city's West Side will be open during the filing period. They will even be open 9 a.m. to noon on Saturday, Dec. 20.
In addition, candidates for one day only can file at two suburban locations on the first day of filing. The two sites are Arlington International Racecourse and the Tinley Park Convention Center.
"We're taking every measure possible to make it as convenient as we can," Cook County clerk's office spokeswoman Courtney Greve said.
Making the satellite locations possible required "a lot of logistics and advanced planning," according to Greve.
Clerks' offices oversee candidate filing for even-year elections, including countywide elected officials. This is the first time they'll handle the filing for school board candidates.
Candidates for other local offices, including municipal and park boards, still file with the governmental entity they hope to represent.
The transfer of filing responsibility from school districts to election authorities was done as part of a state law enacted over the summer.
Greve said the change was made because the candidate filing period often overlaps with the winter breaks for schools.
"School districts didn't want to have to be open solely for filing," Greve said. It remains to be seen whether the change causes confusion for candidates accustomed to filing with their local school districts.
Suzanne Fahnestock, director of elections for Kane County, said efforts have been made to notify potential candidates about where they need to file. In addition to including information on the county clerk's website, Fahnestock said the school districts have been notified.
"They're letting people know," said Fahnestock, adding that Kane hasn't received any complaints from candidates about the change to the filing procedure.
All the candidates in line when the election offices open on Monday will have their papers stamped with that time. If more than one candidate seeking the same office file at the same time, a lottery will be conducted to determine whose name will appear first on the ballot.