Cunningham remains in ballot jeopardy in 11th Congressional race
Jack Cunningham's status on the 11th Congressional District ballot remains in limbo following an appellate court's ruling Wednesday. The ongoing examination of Cunningham's petitions, however, will get a change of venue.
A First District Appellate Court sent the case back to the Illinois State Board of Elections for an expedited ruling. The appellate court ordered the state board to take another look at allegations involving improper notarization of several of Cunningham's nominating petitions. The state board had originally ruled it didn't have the authority to examine that particular accusation.
Now that the state board has that power, some of the testimony may prove to be trouble for Cunningham's candidacy in his race against Congresswoman Judy Biggert. Two of the petition circulators in the case testified that they did not always appear in person before a notary when having their petitions notarized. The notary on those petitions supplied conflicting testimony in the case. At first she said the circulators signed their petition sheets in front of her before she notarized them. In subsequent testimony, the notary said she notarized some petitions without the circulators present if she recognized their signatures on the petition sheets.
That may be grounds for the state board to invalidate those petition sheets. If enough signatures are invalidated, Cunningham's name would still appear on the Republican ballot. However, votes for him would not be counted.
The state board must rule no later than Tuesday. The First District Appellate Court is maintaining its jurisdiction in the case pending the state board's decision.
John Fogarty is the attorney for the people challenging Cunningham's petitions. He said the appellate court's ruling is significant, but there's more work to be done in the case. Fogarty said it's likely the state board will make a ruling on existing testimony in the case. However, it is possible additional testimony could be requested on the notarization of the petitions in question.
“We're in a bit of a no man's land,” Fogarty said.