Plenty of voters, but too few candidates

Plenty of voters, but too few candidates

The election for governor and congress is over, but more of our tax money is spent by elected local officials sitting on the insatiable school boards, struggling city councils and redundant other public bodies.

They - over 3,800 officials in just the suburbs - are up for election next spring, but the window to submit papers to become a candidate will have slammed shut before Christmas.

Despite the ridiculously early deadline designed to protect incumbents, it is still very easy to become a member of your local school board, city council, library, park or fire board, but time is short.

For most offices, it takes only 50 signatures on a nomination paper to become a candidate (but only four signatures are needed to run for alderman in a certain ward in West Chicago, only 12 in Warrenville), and 53 percent of all school, city, and other local seats up this time were "elected" with no opposing candidate last time.

We have plenty of voters; we need more candidates or else voting is an empty right.

Tired of your school board trying to keep the superintendent's pay package secret? Are your school taxes out of control? Are your kids being filled with political correctness nonsense instead of learning arithmetic? Obtain a nomination packet from your county clerk (or, in DuPage County, the DuPage Election Commission), get your 50 signatures over a weekend, and return it before the deadline.

For municipal offices, pick up a packet at your city hall; for library, park, or fire board, pick up a packet from the offices of those public bodies.

If you have questions about becoming a candidate, the Citizen Advocacy Center (630) 833-4080 may be able to help.

Unless you become a candidate, we will continue with over half our elective offices filled by folks no one really chose.

Stan Zegel

Winfield