Kane board member Allan survives election petition challenge

Kane County Board District 17 member Deb Allan of Elgin gets to stay on the March Democratic primary ballot.

The county election board unanimously overruled an objection to her nominating petition. The objector, George Bero of Elgin, argued the petition was invalid because the notary public who verified Allan’s signature on the pages did not put his notary seal on the pages.

The notary public was Allan’s husband, Arthur, an attorney. “It was just another lawyer-stupid mistake,” Arthur Allan said after the hearing. Deb Allan also said it was her fault that the omission wasn’t caught before the petition was submitted. She is the secretary of their law practice.

Bero said he checked the nomination petitions of every candidate running for office in Kane County, and that everybody else’s petition pages bore a notary public’s stamp.

He said he checks all of them because he is a Republican precinct committeeman.

Arthur Allan argued that the omission was a scrivener’s error, and that his signature should suffice under the state’s notary public law. He told the panel that he had driven his wife to each of the places where she collected signatures, so he knew it was her that collected the names on each sheet. The error was his, not the candidate’s, he said, and because it wasn’t about the signatures, did not affect the “essential validity” of her petition.

Bero responded that it would set a bad precedent, and that it is the candidate’s responsibility to present the petition properly.

Deb Allan has no opponent in the primary. And no Republicans filed for the position.

The electoral board consists of the county’s state’s attorney, circuit court clerk and county clerk. State’s Attorney Joe McMahon was there Monday; the circuit court clerk sent Chief Deputy Clerk Karin Herwick; and the county clerk designated Suzanne Fahnestock, director of elections, as his representative.