Island Lake board candidate bumped from ballot

A candidate for the Island Lake village board has been bumped from the April ballot because of problems with her paperwork, officials confirmed Thursday.

Marcy Night didn't get the minimum number of signatures required on her candidate petition, a three-member local electoral board ruled Wednesday night.

Candidates for any local office must get a number of signatures on their petitions that is a percentage of registered voters in the particular town or district. For the upcoming Island Lake village board election, 61 signatures were needed.

Night's petition only had 38 names, said Mayor Debbie Herrmann, who sat on the electoral board with Village Clerk Pam Miller and Trustee Don Saville.

Additionally, Night failed to submit her economic interest statement to the Lake County clerk's office before turning it in to the village, Herrmann said.

A first-time candidate, Night said she thought she had properly followed the directions in the candidate packet she received from the village. She now believes those directions were incomplete.

“I thought I had it right,” she said Thursday. “It wasn't right.”

Night's petition had been formally challenged by local resident Joseph K. Ptak, who also is running for the board.

Night's removal from the ballot leaves six candidates for three seats with 4-year terms.

The hopefuls are split into two slates.

Ptak, Shannon L. Fox and Thea J. Morris are running as Residents Invested in Governing With Honesty & Integrity, which they've abbreviated as RIGHT.

Charles Cermak, Mary Piekarski and Allen Murvine are running as the People's Voice for Island Lake.

All six candidates are newcomers. Three sitting trustees — Saville, John Ponio and Don Verciglio — are not seeking re-election.

On Thursday, Ptak said he was pleased Night was removed from the ballot. He feared she would take votes away from his group of candidates, all three of whom have been publicly critical of the mayor and her political allies.

“We can't split the opposition vote against the slate we're running against,” Ptak said.

The election is April 5.