Letter: Residents, not hearing board, will pick leaders

Some details about the recent electoral hearings in response to resident Terry Voss' unsuccessful challenges are worth mentioning:

A retired Lake County judge served on the first hearing involving an incumbent trustee seeking reelection. The claim that the signature totals needed were actually more than village staff stated was incorrect. Staff was right and all the candidates had ample signatures.

Many signatures were tossed from both candidates - Mundelein addresses with 5 digits are unincorporated residents and are not constituents of the elected officials of Mundelein and their signatures are not valid signatures as they can't vote in Mundelein elections.

There were pages of one candidate's signatures tossed due to sloppiness and being incomplete.

Even after all these signatures were eliminated, the candidates still had enough signatures to remain on the ballot as they had more signatures than the correct minimum threshold provided. Apparently, this fact does not sit well with some of the other candidates who feel it would have been best for these two to be removed from the ballot.

Had the two been removed, then there would have been three candidates left standing for three positions - and no need for an election in the spring. Of course this would have been the easy way out for the three other candidates, as they would not need to campaign, put signs up or participate in public debates leading up to the election.

This whole process has cost the citizens of Mundelein over $10,000 - but is the cost of doing business. All should be delighted that the residents will decide who their trustees will be rather than the hearing board deciding for us.

Ray Semple

Mundelein