Two write-in candidates create contested race for District 211 school board election

The declaration of two write-in candidates has made the Palatine-Schaumburg High School District 211 board of education election on April 1 contested for the first time since two different candidates were removed from the ballot in December.

Violetta Flis of Hanover Park and Natasha Mucci of Palatine met the filing deadline to be considered valid write-in candidates, the Cook County Clerk’s office confirmed Tuesday. Flis’ name appears as Wioletta Myskal-Flis on the write-in candidacy paperwork filed with the clerk.

They join balloted candidates Anne Lopez of Hanover Park, former candidate Jane Russell of Rolling Meadows and former Schaumburg Township Elementary District 54 board member Kenneth Van Dyke of Roselle in the race for three available four-year terms on the board.

None of the incumbents whose terms are ending are seeking reelection. Senior board member and current president Anna Klimkowicz, along with first-term members Curtis Bradley and Tim McGowan, will leave the board in the spring.

An electoral board in December had sustained objections against the nominating petitions of Jean Baptiste Benjamin Hirwa of Schaumburg and Michael Prokopij of Hanover Park. Van Dyke filed the objection against Hirwa’s petition, while former District 211 board member Ed Yung filed the objection against Prokopij’s.

Flis’ name appears as Wioletta Myskal-Flis on the write-in candidacy paperwork filed with the clerk.

The clerk’s office clarifies that complete accuracy of a write-in candidate’s name isn’t required as long as election judges can determine a voter’s intent to select a specific write-in candidate. But there should be some relationship between the appearance or sound of the name written on the ballot and that of the candidate’s actual name.