Mt. Prospect will let voters decide new election procedure

Mount Prospect will have a referendum question to let voters decide how the village will run its elections.

The village board voted 4-3 Tuesday to put a question on the Feb. 2, 2010, ballot that could determine whether the village holds primary elections for local offices and how many signatures would be needed to get onto the ballot.

The issue has deeply divided the board. Trustees Steven Polit, Arlene Juracek and John Matuszak voted "no" on putting the question to voters, while Trustees Michael Zadel, Paul Hoefert and John Korn voted "yes." Mayor Irvana Wilks was the deciding vote.

Historically, Mount Prospect has held nonpartisan local elections with no primaries.

But last spring, based on what the village said was a new interpretation of state regulations, Mount Prospect officials decided to run their local election under the primary system.

In the end, not enough candidates filed to require the village to hold an actual primary. But the village had to move up its candidate filing period for the possible primary, which officials acknowledged did create some confusion.

If the referendum question passes in February, the village will go back to a non-primary system.

The referendum question also calls for a change in how many signatures are needed to get on the ballot. Now a candidate needs 1 percent of the number of people who voted in the last election, or about 45 signatures.

The village is looking at changing that to 1 percent of all registered voters, or about 300 signatures. Before last spring's election, the village used a different measurement that required a similar number of signatures.