DuPage panel takes recall question off the ballot

DuPage County voters won't get a chance to weigh in on the recall debate after all.

The county election commission is pulling off the Nov. 4 ballot an advisory question that asked voters whether they support recalling officials holding statewide offices. Currently, those officials cannot be removed from office by a vote of the people.

Election commission Executive Director Robert Saar said a review of the paperwork submitted to get the issue on the ballot uncovered too few signatures on the petitions. Supporters needed more than 21,000 signatures and garnered less than 7,000.

Amy Tauchman, executive director of the DuPage County Democratic Party, said the commission should have thrown out the petitions when it was submitted weeks ago. When she spearheaded a campaign a few years ago to get an advisory question on the DuPage ballot condemning the war in Iraq, election commission officials immediately threw it out because of a signature shortage. She said the recall measure was pulled only after she questioned the signature count Friday.

"All it took was a little poking," she said. "It doesn't have anything to do with the issue, it has to do with the partisanship of the election commission that's supposed to be a nonpartisan organization."

Cook County voters will still see the question on their ballots, despite a similar issue there. Saar said that's because of an appeals court ruling that affects DuPage County and not Cook County.

Cook County Clerk officials said supporters of the initiative submitted less than 1,000 signatures on their petitions and needed more than 100,000. Because no one complained about the measure in Cook County during the designated objection period it will remain on the ballot.

Saar said the appeals court ruling mandates DuPage election officials have a higher level of responsibility to make sure the paperwork is in order than other counties in the state.