Lake County ballots not yet set in stone

Candidates getting knocked off the ballot over poor paperwork or someone's desire to run as a write-in are changing the look of the April 7 elections in Lake County.

Much of the activity has been in Antioch, where there are now two write-in candidates for mayor in addition to two who will be listed on the ballot.

One Antioch mayoral candidate, Trustee Robert Caulfield Jr., survived a challenge to his nominating petitions at a hearing Monday to stay on the ballot.

Antioch resident Dave Migalla filed a challenge with the village stating Caulfield should be tossed from the April ballot in part because he was too vague by listing himself as a candidate only for mayor on the nominating petition. Migalla contended Caulfield didn't specify the town he wanted to lead.

However, the village's electoral board didn't uphold Migalla's complaint about Caulfield and allowed him to keep his ballot spot.

"I guess the immediate thing is I made it through that process and survived," Caulfield said Tuesday. "I didn't think it was a legitimate challenge."

Caulfield and Trustee Lawrence Hanson will be on the ballot for mayor. Residents Kris Murphy and 18-year-old Erik Peters have filed proper paperwork with the Lake County clerk and will be the two write-in choices for mayor.

Migalla was successful in his effort to knock trustee candidates David Dziki and Rebecca Weber from the ballot because of faulty nominating petitions. Antioch still will have a trustee race, with four candidates seeking three seats.

In Grayslake, Trustee Michael Francq was lopped from the ballot because some signatures were not from registered voters living in the village and one page stated he was running in the "April 17, 2007" election.

Mayor Timothy Perry and village Clerk Cynthia Lee voted to remove Francq in their roles on Grayslake's three-member electoral board. Trustee Jeff Werfel dissented.

Perry said Francq's error on when Election Day occurs was "most glaring."

But Werfel said while Francq's paperwork was sloppy, it wasn't egregious enough to oust him from the ballot.

"You should be looking at this through the very strong prism of trying to defraud the voters," Werfel said Tuesday.

Hearings on challenges to nominating petitions filed by Kildeer Trustee Olivia Coughlin and a batch of candidates in Round Lake Beach were set for today.

Two write-in candidates - incumbent Andrew Harris and challenger Megan Caras - have surfaced for Gurnee village clerk. In tiny Indian Creek, near Vernon Hills, Steve Palmer's formal write-in effort means there are now four candidates seeking three seats.

Ballots: Hearings on challenges in Kildeer and Round Lake Beach set for today