Judge rules Vito in, Papantos out as Wheeling trustee

Joe Vito will be sworn in as Wheeling village trustee Monday after a Cook County Circuit judge's decision that rules him the winner of the April 7 election.

Cook County Circuit Judge Alfred Paul Wednesday ruled 33 write-in ballots from the Wheeling village trustee race should be counted.

Vito, who ran as a write-in candidate on a slate endorsed by village President Dean Argiris, initially lost to Mary Papantos by 26 votes. She has held the seat since she was sworn in May 4.

After learning that 34 mail-in ballots had been ruled invalid by Cook County Clerk David Orr's office, Vito contested the results on April 30.

Thirty-three of the ballots in question included Vito's name as a write-in candidate, but voters failed to fill in the arrow corresponding with his name. The other ballot had "Joe Vogel" as the write-in candidate.

"Our understanding of election law was that we didn't have the discretion to count the votes without the marks made connecting the two parts of the arrow," said Cook County Clerk spokeswoman Courtney Greve.

That's why, she says, it was up to the judge to decide whether the intent was clear. Vito argued it should be obvious that voters who wrote his name on the ballot intended to vote for him. Not counting those votes, Vito said, would "disenfranchise 33 voters."

Vito, an attorney for an insurance firm, represented himself in the lawsuit.

Paul, in his decision, said the intent of the 33 voters in this case was clear even though they failed to fill in the arrow corresponding with his name.

"I had voter intent on my side, clearly and unequivocally," Vito said.

Papantos' attorney, Karen Beverly, argued that voters should have to cast proper ballots for them to be counted. And that would have meant putting a mark between the two ends of the arrow corresponding with Vito's name, she said.

"There's no mark, not even a dot," Beverly said. "The mark is just not there."

Papantos has 30 days to appeal the ruling. There was no immediate word from her or her attorney on whether they will appeal.

Argiris says Vito brings a lot to the table for Wheeling.

"He does his homework, he communicates with board members," Argiris said. "He will be an asset for this community."

Trustee Ray Lang says he looks forward to working with Vito but commended Papantos on her time in office.

"When Mary was on the board for just a short time, she worked well with everyone as well," Lang said.

Vito was appointed in January to the board after longtime incumbent Robert Heer, who was running for re-election, died of a stroke on Christmas Eve. Vito decided in February to run as a write-in.

Incumbents Lang and Dave Vogel won re-election easily, leaving Vito and Papantos, who had run unsuccessfully before and is regularly at odds with Argiris, in close contention for the last seat.