Ontiveroz confident he'll be next Glendale Heights president
Mike Ontiveroz is confident he will become the next village president of Glendale Heights, despite incumbent Linda Jackson's efforts to keep the seat.
On Thursday, Ontiveroz had a 57-vote lead over Chodri Ma Khokhar with 877 votes counted, according to unofficial results from the DuPage County clerk's office. Votes for Jackson haven't been counted because of an April 2 decision by the Illinois Supreme Court that removed her name from Tuesday's ballot.
Now Jackson is asking the state high court to reconsider its ruling that she did not have enough signatures on her nominating petitions to be a candidate.
"I don't think it is over yet," Jackson said Wednesday. "There are hundreds of voters who are absolutely livid because their right to vote was taken from them."
But Ontiveroz said on Thursday that Khokhar and another village president candidate - Ed Pope - reached out to congratulate him. Pope was removed from the ballot last week because of a lack of signatures on his nominating petitions.
"I'm confident the Supreme Court knows the legal requirements for candidates and how to correctly apply the law," Ontiveroz wrote in an email to the Daily Herald. "Once the results are certified by the DuPage County clerk, I anticipate being sworn in."
If he was in Jackson's position, Ontiveroz said, he would respect the court "as the ultimate legal authority" and "not waste more taxpayer resources."
He said Jackson, who has served as village president since 1999, should have known better than to submit only 50 signatures on her petitions. Glendale Heights resident Matthew Corbin ended up challenging the nominating petitions for Jackson and Pope.
Ontiveroz said Jackson misled voters by failing to disclose that her candidacy was being reviewed by the courts.
"Worse yet," he wrote, "she told voters to write in her name, in total disregard of the Election Code and the Supreme Court's order, rather than accepting the decision."