Objectors who targeted school, park and library board hopefuls succeeded in quashing campaign bids of more than two thirds of south and southwest suburban candidates who faced petition challenges.
The Cook County Electoral Board heard cases involving 45 people who collected signatures and filed paperwork to run for office in the April 4 election. The board sustained 18 objections, meaning those candidates will not appear on ballots.
The board overruled 14 other objections, which allows those candidates to proceed. Thirteen cases were declared moot because candidates withdrew their petitions before the board could decide outcomes.
The cases will affect upcoming elections for school boards or other offices in Calumet Park, Country Club Hills, Dixmoor, Dolton, Ford Heights, Harvey, Lynwood, Markham, Park Forest, South Holland and other communities.
In most instances in which the electoral board sustained objections, investigators determined candidates failed to obtain enough valid signatures from registered voters who live within the district. In some cases officials tossed petitions because candidates failed to securely attach pages together or neglected to comply with other legal requirements.
Louise Coleman will remain on ballots in her bid for another term on the Dolton Public Library Board. The electoral board overruled an objection by Stan Brown, a Thornton Township employee and member of the Thornton Township High School District 205 Board.
Dolton Mayor and Thornton Township Supervisor Tiffany Henyard supports Brown’s April candidacy for a seat on the Dolton Village Board. Brown and Devonte Stewart also challenged the candidacy of library board member Linda Collins, who withdrew her bid for reelection.
The electoral board sustained an objection to the candidacy of Dixmoor Library Board hopeful Shuaverta Miles because she did not number, or paginate, pages of her petition. The electoral board overruled objections to the candidacies of four other Dixmoor Library Board candidates whose names will appear on ballots: Arletta Evans, Joy Johnson, Elizabeth B. Smith Hampton and Denise Bonita Ruffin.
Authorities overruled objections to the candidacies of Calumet Memorial Park Board member Nyota Figgs and candidate Erica Jenkins. Figgs also is city clerk for Calumet City.
Anthony McCaskill, who is running for mayor of Harvey, succeeded in bumping two Harvey Park Board candidates from ballots for having insufficient numbers of valid signatures. Officials determined 46 signatures were needed and Lakeisha R. Brown and Marcos C. Perez-Lopez each had only 32 valid signatures.
The board rejected claims by the two that their petitions had been tampered with after they filed them. The board denied the candidates’ requests to subpoena Park District administrators who received petitions.
“The candidate’s basis to allow for this satellite litigation is a claim that local governments across the state will adopt sloppy procedures or even worse, destroy pages of candidates who are disfavored,” the electoral board wrote in its rulings on both cases.
“This is rank speculation,” the board wrote. “Illinois law has long held that election officials are presumed to act correctly and in good faith.”
Attorney Matt Welch of Montana & Welch represented McCaskill. His wife, Kisha McCaskill, Harvey Park District executive director, withdrew her bid for a seat on Harvey Elementary District 152 Board amid challenges from two separate objectors. Tiffany Nelson-Jaworski of Del Galdo Law Group, who serves as legal counsel for Thornton Township, represented Kisha McCaskill.
Sadiya Vohra’s name will appear on ballots for the District 152 Board after the electoral board overruled an objection.
Lavell Rucker’s challenges knocked four people out of contention for seats on Calumet Elementary District 132, which serves Calumet Park. The board upheld a challenge to the reelection bid of Karen Ivey, who has served on the board since 2001 and who was previously accused of misconduct. Ivey cited medical reasons for being unable to attend a hearing and consented to a default judgment.
Three others, board member Kimberly Watkins Almond and candidates Corliss Smith and Affilonia Barksdale Jones, withdrew their petitions.
Objector Kimberly Griffin succeeded in getting three candidates for the Ford Heights Park Board tossed from ballots. The electoral board found Lamarr Jones and Leon Martin failed to collect enough valid signatures and that Marquita Washup neglected to file a statement of candidacy as required by law.
Four challenges involved Park Forest-Chicago Heights School District 163. Board member Randall White withdrew his bid for reelection. The electoral board tossed Herbert Ferguson for not filing a statement of candidacy and quashed the bid of Tiara Smith-Bobo for not filing a statement of economic interest.
The board overruled an objection to the candidacy of board member Judy Hawthorne, whose name will appear on ballots.
The board agreed with an objection to Eric Wesley Abraham, who did not appear at a hearing or send a representative to respond to the challenge that voided his bid for a seat on the Blue Island-based Cook County School District 130 Board. John Marekt Boehning’s name will appear on ballots after the electoral board overruled an objection to his candidacy.
The electoral board overruled Joseph Marjan’s objection and cleared the way for Samir Vohra to run for a seat on the Thornton Township High School District 205 Board. The board sustained Marjan’s challenge of Demarkus Criggley, who did not appear at a hearing. When election authorities asked Criggley to provide an email at which he could be contacted, he listed an email for Keith Freeman, Dolton village administrator who also serves as special assistant to Henyard at Thornton Township.
Also not appearing to answer a challenge was Mary E. Johnson, ending her bid for a seat on the South Holland School District 151 Board. Election authorities overruled challenges and directed that ballots include candidates Tamara Young for the Country Club Hills Elementary District 160 Board and Brandie Jackson-Williams for Sauk Village-based Elementary School District 168.
Authorities tossed the petitions of Kenneth Henderson, who did not attend a hearing challenging his bid for reelection to the West Harvey-Dixmoor School District 147 Board.
The electoral board agreed with objections by Ronald Colwell to five members of the board that oversees Sandridge Elementary District 172 serving Lynwood and part of Chicago Heights. Board member Stacey McJunkins did not appear at a hearing.
The board ruled petitions filed by Carolyn Guthrie, David Logan and Michael Ward failed to comply with requirements that petition pages be neatly fastened together in book form. Election officials found Kimberly Newton needed 50 signatures and only had 49.
Former Dolton Mayor Riley Rogers and two others, Antwon Russell and Gloria White, withdrew petitions for seats on township trustees of schools boards serving the Thornton Township and Thornton Fractional districts.
Ted Slowik is a columnist for the Daily Southtown.