Gail Borden Trustee Randy Hopp can stay on ballot

An electoral board ruled Wednesday that controversial Gail Borden Public Library Trustee Randy Hopp will remain on the April 9 ballot.

The board also allowed newcomer Elizabeth Kruger to run but bounced newcomer Carlos Betancourt from the ballot.

That means four people — including incumbent Susan Moylan and newcomer Patricia Harkin — will vie for three open seats. Trustee Penny Wegman is not running for re-election.

Hopp is banned from the library as a patron and faces felony charges of attacking his elderly parents. He is next due in court Jan. 16. He was elected to the board in 2009 but later banned from the library — except for board meetings — after the staff complained of harassing behavior. The library board voted in December to continue the ban.

Elgin resident Herbert Gross filed an objection to Hopp’s nominating papers, claiming Hopp used his nickname “Randy” rather than his legal name “Randolph Lee” in an attempt to confuse voters when seeking signatures on his nominating papers.

Kane County Clerk Jack Cunningham said the electoral board — composed of representatives of the clerk’s office, circuit court clerk’s office and the state’s attorney’s office — ruled against that objection based on case law.

But the electoral board ruled that Betancourt didn’t properly number all the pages of his petition and filed his validated receipt from the county clerk’s office for the statement of economic interest too late, Cunningham said.

Those were claims that Elgin resident Hal Cattron made when he filed objections against the petitions of Betancourt and Krueger.

In Krueger’s case, the board found that she had filed the documents in two jurisdictions, the county clerk’s office and the local election authority, so she was allowed to remain on the ballot, Cunningham said.