The Aurora electoral board said it plans to reach a final decision Monday on whether two referendum questions aiming to allow for the recall of a sitting mayor and at-large aldermen can appear on the November ballot in Aurora.
County clerks need the decision by the end of the business day Monday to include the questions on the ballot in the upcoming election, said Special Assistant DuPage County State’s Attorney Patrick Bond during a meeting of the electoral board Friday.
“We would just ask that you use all haste and try and get this resolved,” said Bond. “None of the clerks care what the decision is, they just want to know what their ballot is going to look like and how they can build that.”
If placed on the ballot, the questions would ask Aurora voters if the city should adopt mechanisms that would allow a sitting mayor or an alderman at-large to be recalled.
The referendum’s primary proponent is Adam Pauley, one of the organizers behind the Aurora for Change group, said John Fogarty, the attorney representing Pauley
Objections to the referendum questions were formally submitted by Helen Francis Ratzlow, who is represented by attorney Ed Mullen.
Still at issue is whether Aurora and its voters have the constitutional authority to create the proposed recall system, whether a recall election could be held on a date other than an election day already scheduled, whether the referendum combines separate questions and whether the referendum questions are written so that the system could legally operate if voters do approve it.
While no final decision was reached Friday, the board announced the results of an examination of voter registration records in relation to the referendum effort.
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Results showed that the number of petition signatures supporting the mayoral referendum effort met the minimum requirements for a ballot referendum measure, according to the board’s legal counsel, Jason Guisinger.
But in question remains if the signatures supporting the aldermanic referendum effort meet the minimum requirement, and what the exact minimum requirement is.
The minimum number is determined by a calculation of 8% of the gubernatorial vote in 2022, said Fogarty. That number has proven difficult to calculate, he said, due to split precincts.
Of the 4,008 signatures filed supporting the aldermanic recall effort, 1,101 signatures were ruled invalid in the examination, leaving 2,907 signatures ruled valid. That total number falls below what the objector believes is the minimum requirement of 3,147 signatures.
The referendum’s proponents had until the end of the day Friday to file with the board the minimum number that proponents believe is required to get the measure on the ballot.
The board will decide on the issue of the minimum number of valid signatures needed on Monday.
Under the referendum’s proposed mechanism, residents looking to recall an elected official would need to circulate petitions and collect at least enough signatures to equal 20% of the total votes cast in the most recent mayoral election, according to the proposed referendum question.
If a recall petition received enough signatures, then the recall would go to a general vote in the next election.
The elected official would then be removed from office if the majority of voters cast their ballots in favor of the recall. The Aurora City Council would have 30 days to fill the vacancy, and if there’s more than 13 months remaining in the term, then a special election would be held to fill the seat within nine months.
The group Aurora for Change, formed specifically around the recall referendum issue, submitted nearly 1,000 pages of petition signatures in early August in an effort to get the referendum questions on the ballot.
While some of the group’s leaders say the initiative is non-partisan and not aimed at any specific elected official, others promoting the effort have specifically called for Aurora Mayor John Laesch to be removed from office.
Laesch told The Beacon-News in late August that he worked in his off-hours to object to the proposed referendum and knocked on doors to verify signatures ahead of the objection deadline.
Ald. Keith Larson, at-large, and Ald. Will White, at-large, have also opposed the referendum effort and claim its aimed towards them, according to statements in a video they posted on social media.
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Former Aurora mayor Richard Irvin, who has continually criticized Laesch’s work as mayor, posted a video on social media supporting the referendum and donated $14,000 to the effort, according to his statements to The Beacon-News in mid-August.
The Aurora electoral board is set to meet again to discuss the referendum objections at 8:30 a.m. on Monday, Sept. 14, in the Council Chambers at Aurora City Hall.