Elburn election challenge hearing delayed till Monday

The hearing into whether Jeff Walter and Kenneth Anderson should be removed from the Elburn ballot has been continued to Jan. 9.

The two requested the delay Tuesday at the outset of the hearing. They have hired an attorney, Walter said, but that attorney was not available Tuesday because he was working at a hearing in Burlington.

Objectors say their petitions are not valid because they did not number the pages, as required by state law.

One objection was filed by Elburn resident James MacRunnels, against Walter, who is running for president against David Gualdoni and Chris Mondi.

The other was filed by Michael Rullman against Anderson. Rullman, Anderson, Matthew Wilson and Patricia Schuberg are seeking the three available trustee seats. Anderson and Schuberg are incumbents.

The hearings will resume at 7 p.m. Monday at the village hall, 301 E. North St.

About 30 people, including the candidates and objectors, attended the electoral board meeting Tuesday.

"I believe this is an error of omission, not commission. Nobody wants to sabotage their own candidacy," resident Ken Gustafson told the board. "I believe it is hard enough in any town, any city, any village to get qualified candidates to run for any position."

Resident Skip Stolley said he is "just really disappointed" in Rullman for objecting.

"A complaint like this just trivializes the whole issue of local government here in Elburn ... it diverts attention from the really serious matters the village has to deal with," he said.

But Winfield resident Stanley Zegel, executive director of the Citizen Participation Institute, defended challenges on seemingly minor issues.

"An elected official has to follow a lot of statutes, a lot of laws, a lot of details. And there are no papers more important in a candidate's life than his election papers," Zegel said. So a failure to number pages could be an indication of how the candidate would behave if elected, Zegel said.