Judge to decide whether to keep ECC candidate on the ballot
An Elgin man is trying to get an Elgin Community College board candidate removed from the April 4 ballot, alleging Patricia Arroyo committed fraud when she said she was registered to vote at her address.
Cody Holt - a political consultant and a former member of the Elgin Area School District U-46 school board - is asking Kane County Judge Kevin Busch to overturn the decision of the college's electoral board, which ruled Jan. 10 that Arroyo, who lives on Larkspur Court in Pingree Grove, could stay on the ballot.
Holt alleges Arroyo committed fraud on the Statement of Candidacy she filed. In that fill-in-the-blank form, she listed the Larkspur address and agreed she was a "qualified voter therein." She signed the statement Dec. 10, and submitted it to election authorities by Dec. 14.
Holt said as of Dec. 10 Arroyo was not registered as a voter anywhere in the college district.
Kane County Clerk John Cunningham told Holt, via a letter, that as of Dec. 21 nobody was registered to vote at the Larkspur address, according to the clerk's "active voter" records. Holt submitted the letter as an exhibit with his objection.
Arroyo now is listed as a registered voter at that address.
According to a written copy of its decision, the electoral board ruled Holt failed to prove Arroyo intentionally committed fraud. It also ruled the state's Public Community College Act does not require candidates to be registered voters, and that law trumps the Statement of Candidacy form. Furthermore, Arroyo testified during the board hearing that she believed she was registered at the Larkspur address.
Busch will hear the case Monday.