Hoffman Estates candidate kicked off ballot
After several days of testimony, Hoffman Estates officials took just 11 minutes to kick trustee candidate Prajesh "Pat" Patel off the ballot during an electoral board hearing on Tuesday afternoon after finding he did not meet residency requirements to run for village board.
Patel and his attorney did not attend the hearing, which Village Clerk Bev Romanoff said "really shocked" members of the electoral board.
A hearing on Monday took about three hours and that was after another hearing earlier in the month addressed four of six objections to Patel's candidacy. The sticking point was whether or not Patel actually lives at his listed address in Hoffman Estates.
Records show Patel voted in Addison in November and was a registered voter at that address up until Nov. 24, when he applied for voter registration at the Hoffman Estates address just hours before filing his nominating petition.
"The Illinois Municipal Code requires a person to be a qualified elector (registered voter) of the municipality and reside in the municipality at least one year preceding the election in order to hold the office of village trustee," the decision from the electoral board issued Tuesday afternoon reads. "Because the candidate has not complied with the statutory requirements ... he is not qualified to hold the office of village trustee."
The electoral board, consisting of Hoffman Estates Mayor Bill McLeod, Village Trustee Karen Mills and Village Clerk Romanoff, dismissed several paperwork technicalities that were brought up in objections against Patel's petitions filed by Andrew Nawrocki, a member of the village's Emerging Technologies Advisory Commission.
Among these was one calling some of the signatures on Patel's petition invalid without specifying which ones or why and another that said Patel did not identify both Cook and Kane counties as the proper jurisdictions on his statement of candidacy.
But, because of the voter registration issue, Patel's name will not appear on the ballot in the April 7 local consolidated election.
The board subpoenaed Patel's former wife, whose name appears on the deed of the Hoffman Estates home, and documents including his auto registration, driver's license, electric bill, federal tax return, library card, state tax return, property tax bill and voter's card as evidence to investigate whether Patel really lived at the address he listed or not.
Romanoff said a copy of the decision will be sent to Patel and his attorney and it will be up to him whether or not to appeal.
Patel was one of five candidates who filed to run for three seats on the Hoffman Estates village board. Also running are trustees Anna Newell, Gary Pilafas and Gary Stanton and former trustee Cary Collins.
Because Hoffman Estates municipal elections are on the primary system, trustee candidates filed in November - leaving room for a February primary in case a lot of candidates filed. Not enough did, and there will not be a primary.