Sliwinski off ballot in Carpentersville board race

A Carpentersville trustee was removed from the April ballot Thursday after a lengthy review of signatures on her nominating petitions determined too many were ineligible or illegible.

The village's electoral board rejected 45 signatures collected by Trustee Linda Ramirez-Sliwinski, leaving the first-term trustee with fewer than the needed 148 valid signatures, electoral board member Judy Sigwalt said.

"Many of the stricken signatures were not found," Sigwalt said. "There was no record of (their voter registration) with Kane County."

Village President Bill Sarto said the high number of rejected signatures was alarming.

"It makes you question how up-to-date the information is," Sarto said. "Since November there have been a record number of new voters registered. I don't think the list is as accurate as it should be."

Ramirez-Sliwinski could not be immediately reached for comment.

Though trustee candidate Joseph Haimann saw a number of signatures removed, he still had enough to remain on the ballot. Objector Frank Stoneham withdrew his challenge.

Stoneham, a one-time village trustee candidate and another resident, filed challenges to all 11 candidates in the race for village offices, including three running for village president.

Among complaints, Stoneham contends petitions include forged or duplicated signatures or signatures from people who do not reside within the village. Additionally, Stoneham contends some petitions exceeded the maximum number of signatures.

Furthermore, resident Judith Gallagher claims a number of technical errors in paperwork filed by candidates. Among them: paperwork was not "neatly fastened together in book form," and that the statements of candidacy were not signed in the presence of a notary public, as required by the state's election code.

So far, Haimann and trustee candidates Debra Lowen and Kenneth Andresen have been deemed eligible to run for office.

Meanwhile, four other trustee candidates - Kent Baldwin, Patricia Schultz, Bradford McFeggan and incumbent Kay Teeter - must survive an electoral board hearing scheduled for 6:30 p.m. today.

At that time, the electoral board is also scheduled to hear objections against petitions of village president candidates Jim Krenz, Ed Ritter and Sarto. But those hearings could be postponed again because objections against Krenz and Sarto require a cross check of voter information against Kane County records.

The hearing was continued from Monday when Trustee Paul Humpfer recused himself from acting as chairman for proceedings regarding village president petitions. Humpfer cited his long-running feud with Sarto as a reason for stepping down. Sarto cannot preside over the village president hearings since he is a candidate. Sigwalt and Village Clerk Terri Wilde also serve on the electoral board.

However, Wilde stepped down Monday from overseeing trustee candidate hearings to prevent a conflict should she be required to testify against the remaining trustee candidates and one village presidential candidate.

Judge-appointed public members must now be seated to replace both Humpfer and Wilde.

Sarto said he expects at least a date for a check against voter records to be set Friday for president candidates.

"The campaign has been put on hold because of this," Sarto said. "We need to get it moving. We need to know who is on the ballot and who is not."