President candidate stays on Carpentersville ballot
The ballot for Carpentersville village board remains in limbo after variations of the village's electoral board continued hearings regarding challenges to numerous candidate petitions.
There was a mixed bag of results Friday with one candidate struck off the ballot, another given a chance to get back on the ballot, four candidates confirmed and two others still awaiting a hearing.
Village president hopeful Ed Ritter was the first presidential candidate confirmed for the April 7 ballot after the electoral board - comprised of public members Thomas Scherschel and Tim O'Neil and Trustee Judith Sigwalt - denied an objection by resident Judith Gallagher, who was represented by Chicago-based attorney Matthew Flamm.
Flamm had also represented candidates who faced objections from former village board candidate Frank Stoneham.
Gallagher claimed Ritter's petition was improperly bound, but the electoral board ruled that the binder clip Ritter used was sufficient.
The board also said though Ritter did not identify the intended office in an identical manner, the office was 'reasonably identified' and did not cause confusion for residents who signed the petition.
Meanwhile, two other candidates, incumbent Village President Bill Sarto and challenger James Krenz must await a check of county voter registration records to determine the validity of dozens of signatures. Stoneham questioned hundreds of signatures on the candidate petitions.
Krenz did overcome a challenge by Gallagher, who claimed the candidate's petition contained inconsistent information and was improperly bound.
As with Ritter's petition, the electoral board concluded the binder clip and information provided was sufficient to remain on the ballot.
Trustee candidate Kent Baldwin, however, was removed from the ballot when the electoral board - this time comprised of Scherschel, Sarto and Sigwalt - determined a "medium-sized paper clip" was not an acceptable method of binding petition pages.
Meanwhile, Village trustee candidate Linda Ramirez-Sliwinski will attempt to get her name back on the ballot after the electoral board ruled on Thursday that 45 signatures were invalid, leaving Ramirez-Sliwinski just shy of the 148 needed to stay on the ballot. The electoral board will reconvene on Friday to continue Ramirez-Sliwinski's hearing.
The first-term trustee is hoping to join incumbent Kay Teeter and challengers Bradford McFeggan, Patricia Schultz, Joseph Haimann, Debra Lowen and Kenneth Andresen on the ballot.
Teeter, McFeggan and Schultz overcame challenges by Gallagher who claimed the candidates had not signed the petition in front of a notary public, failed to bind petition papers correctly and provided inconsistent information.
In all three instances, the electoral board voted to deny the objections. The vote, however, was not unanimous as Sarto cited recent local decisions where candidates had been thrown off the ballot for failing to secure pages with a staple as reason to sustain the objection.
Haimann, Lowen and Andresen were confirmed on the ballot before Friday night's hearing. Haimann overcame challenges to signatures on his petition on Thursday, while both Andresen and Lowen were retained after Monday's hearing.
That hearing was continued after Village Clerk Terri Wilde recused herself because she would likely be called as a witness against other candidates.