West Dundee mayoral candidate removed from ballot

The race for West Dundee village president is now uncontested after the lone challenger was excluded from the ballot for failing to comply with state election standards.

West Dundee's electoral board voted unanimously Thursday to sustain objections filed against Michael Elmore's nominating petition, leaving incumbent Village President Larry Keller as the only candidate on the April ballot.

The objection, filed by Richard Lovett, said Elmore disregarded standards like numbering petition pages, clearly identifying the village or city, county and state of a signee and binding paperwork in book form, all required by state election law.

"The election code is both jurisdictional and mandatory," said Lovett's attorney, Timothy Dwyer. "Failing to number pages is a jurisdictional defect rendering all signatures invalid, which would exclude Mr. Elmore from the ballot."

Pages must be numbered to prevent tampering of a candidate's petition, Village Attorney John Brechin said.

Elmore, who has never run for office previously, called the unnumbered pages a "slight oversight," and said the rest of the paper work was correct.

"Except for the page numbers, I provided everything that is needed to have my name put on the ballot to be a competitor for the village president position." Elmore said.

But electoral board members Village Clerk Barb Traver and trustees Andrew Yuscka and Joseph Motyl said the rules for filing a nominating petition were clear.

"I don't think we have wiggle room on this one, based on what we have heard," Yuscka said before making a motion to sustain the objections.

After the hearing, Elmore said he would try again for the village president's seat.

"If you are going to play the game you have to know the rules," Elmore said, adding he would try again because "he likes to start at the top."

The April 7 election won't be the first time Keller has run opposed. After being appointed to the seat in 1999, Keller was the only village president candidate in the 2001 election. In 2005 he defeated former trustee Sue Berna for the post.