Several Chicago school board ballot challenges have been taken to the court, as staunch objectors refuse to take no for an answer.
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New filings in Cook County Circuit Court seek to have recently overruled ballot objections to six school board candidates subject to judicial review.
The petitions for review, filed Friday, concern school board president candidate Hilario Dominguez, as well as Ed Bannon (District 1B), Norma Rios-Sierra (District 3A), Jason Dones (District 3B), Anusha Thotakura (District 6A) and Yesenia Lopez (District 7B). All but Lopez have been backed by the Chicago Teachers Union.
The petitions center on a familiar issue: an election law provision known as the dual-circulation rule, which bars petition circulators from collecting signatures for candidates of more than one political party — or for both partisan and independent candidates — in the same election cycle. Since June, the provision has been among several alleged reasons candidates’ nominating papers have been challenged.
School board races are nonpartisan, but challengers argued the rule still applied because many candidates used circulators to gather signatures during the March Democratic primary. The provision was initially created to prevent candidates who lose partisan primaries from running again in the general election as independents. Attorneys for the candidates contended that it had never been applied to a nonpartisan race.
This election cycle, the rule was used to challenge the nominating papers of 22 school board candidates. Last month, however, the Chicago Board of Elections ruled that candidates couldn’t be disqualified simply because of dual circulation.
And this week, the Chicago Electoral Board officially overruled the objections — each of which cited dual circulation — filed against Dominguez, Bannon, Dónes, Lopez, Rios-Sierra and Thotakura.
The petitions for judicial review filed Friday argue that the electoral board’s decisions ought to be reversed because they are “contrary to law.” The appeals then cite the dual circulation rule, maintaining that it applies.
Of the 51 candidates who initially filed for a seat on the board in May, 28 faced objections. As of Tuesday, the electoral board had sustained objections against six candidates and overruled objections against seven, while five challenges were pending. Nine contested candidates had their objections withdrawn.
baiduhai’s Kate Armanini contributed.