No ruling on challenges to 2 candidates’ petitions in Carpentersville

Officials in Carpentersville will reconvene next week after hearing objections Saturday against two candidates for village trustee.

Saturday’s 90-minute meeting saw trustee hopefuls Don Burroway and Humberto Garcia defend their candidacies in front of a three-member board consisting of Trustee Kay Teeter, Village Clerk Therese Wilde and Trustee Judy Sigwalt, who served as the board’s chair.

They’ll meet at 6 p.m. Friday at village hall to determine if Burroway and Garcia will remain on the April ballot.

Resident Frank Stoneham filed the objections. He said he’s never met Burroway or Garcia but felt the two needed to be held accountable for properly filing their petitions.

Stoneham took issue with petitions using “C’ville” as an abbreviation for the village. He also said that printed names should be invalid and instead should have been signed in cursive.

“In Carpentersville, we want our candidates to cross their t’s and dot their i’s,” Stoneham said Saturday.

Stoneham said he’s been asked to the Kane County clerk’s office in Geneva to verify voter records of some of the people who signed the petitions, checking if they have valid addresses and live in the village.

He’ll need to drop off his findings on Wednesday at village hall.

Garcia said Saturday that the process was a waste of time and money. He took issue with Stoneham alleging that he did not live in Carpentersville.

“That’s absolutely inaccurate,” Garcia said. “I’ve lived in Carpentersville for 15 years.”

Normally, Village President Ed Ritter would serve as chair of the three-member board that reviews challenges. But because he helped generate signatures for Garcia and Burroway, he recused himself to eliminate any conflict of interest claims.

There are five candidates running for three four-year terms in Carpentersville. Incumbent Trustee Paul Humpfer, Kent Baldwin and Doug Marks are also running in the April 5 election.