Elgin resident wants Moeller off ballot

An Elgin resident claims Democratic state Rep. Anna Moeller should be tossed off the ballot because she signed a nominating petition for a Republican candidate.

Julie Schmidt of Elgin says Moeller, a Democrat running unopposed in the March primary for the 43rd District, signed a petition for Kane County Recorder Sandy Wegman, also running unopposed in the GOP primary in March.

That violates election code, which states "a 'qualified primary elector' of a party may not sign petitions for or be a candidate in the primary of more than one party," Schmidt's objection says.

Schmidt filed the objection - which includes a copy of the petition with what appears to be Moeller's signature - with the Illinois State Board of Elections on Monday; a preliminary hearing is scheduled for Dec. 14, when the case is expected to be assigned to a hearing officer.

Moeller did not respond Tuesday to requests for comment. The 43rd District includes most of Elgin and portions of Barrington Hills, Carpentersville, East Dundee and South Elgin.

Schmidt unsuccessfully ran for a seat on the Elgin City Council in April; she referred all questions to her attorney Jeff Meyer, an Elgin resident who unsuccessfully ran against Moeller last year.

Meyer pointed to legal precedents, such as a 2013 Cook County electoral board ruling that struck the name of Caroline M. Kennedy Elkins, a Democrat circuit court judge candidate, from the ballot because Kennedy signed a nominating petition for a Republican judge candidate.

An appellate court ruled in 2010 that candidate Cynthia Hebda, a Republican, should have been ineligible to run for the 59th state House seat after she signed a nominating petition for the Democrat incumbent. The ruling, issued after Hebda lost the primary, came after an Illinois Supreme Court order that included a reference to this election rule, Meyer said.

"We've got close primaries in Illinois, and you can move from one party to another from election to election," Meyer said, "but once you pick a party in an election, you have to stay with that party in that election."

The challenge to Moeller's nominating papers is not personal for him, said Meyer, who earlier this year was elected to the Elgin Community College board. "There is not vindictiveness to it," he said. "I'm representing a client, and she's concerned about the integrity of the process."

Sandy Wegman, the Republican, said Moeller signed her nominating petition after Moeller knocked on the door of a Wegman supporter while gathering signatures for her own petition.

"She gave him her petition to sign, and he gave her my petition to sign," she said. "There is nothing to it, it just happened. I had nothing to do with the petition, the challenge, any of it."

Wegman also said she doesn't believe speculation that Moeller thought she was signing a petition for her daughter, Penny Wegman, who is running as a Democrat for a Kane County Board seat. "There's no way there could have been any confusion as to me and my daughter."

Penny Wegman agreed, saying she had asked Moeller to sign her petition, but Moeller declined, saying she had already done so for Tom Armstrong of Elgin, who is running against Penny Wegman in the Democratic primary.

Ron Michaelson, former executive director of the state board of elections, said the state electoral board generally rules within 30 days on such matters. Electoral board rulings can be appealed to the circuit court, but appeals are rarely successful, he said.

"The law is pretty clear," Michaelson said. "I wouldn't want to second guess what the electoral board might do. I'm sure (Moeller), as the defendant, will have counsel represent her as she's an incumbent. We'll have to see what the arguments are."