Glendale Heights village president asks court to put him back on ballot

Glendale Heights Village President Chodri Khokhar is asking a DuPage County judge to put him back on the April 1 ballot.

Khokhar filed a petition Monday seeking judicial review of the village electoral board’s Dec. 23 decision to remove him from the ballot and keep him from seeking a second term.

Listed as defendants are objector Matthew Corbin and the three members of the board — village trustees Chester Pojack and Mary Schroeder, and Village Clerk Marie Schmidt.

In the court filing, Khokhar argues the board had a “conflict of interest” because it members are biased against him.

“The Electoral Board members are supporting a different candidate,” the petition states.

The petition also alleges that an unnamed member of the board “did not provide a fair and open hearing that was honest and fair.”

In the court filing, Khokhar accuses Pojack of making a racist statement against a person who testified on the village president’s behalf at the electoral board hearing. The petition does not state when the alleged remark was made.

Pojack denied the allegation Tuesday.

“I never, never said it,” he said. “They’re just making this up.”

The petition states Khokhar will provide exhibits supporting his allegations at a court hearing. The first hearing is scheduled for March 31, but typically in election cases, petitioners ask to have the judge move up the hearing.

The electoral board ruled 3-0 that Khokhar’s signature sheets exhibited a pattern of fraud, and threw out all 24.

The objection alleged that people signed others’ names on at least 12 sheets of petitions. The DuPage County clerk’s office ruled that some signatures were invalid, and one man submitted an affidavit swearing that he did not sign Khokhar’s petition.

Khokhar argued that he circulated all the sheets himself and that he did not allow anybody to sign on behalf of somebody else. In his court petition, Khokhar argues the members of the electoral board are not experts on signatures and have no qualifications to review signatures.