Judge Reverses Evanston Electoral Board, Removes 2 Candidates

EVANSTON, IL — A pair of candidates for alderman were tossed off the ballot for the upcoming municipal elections Wednesday after a judge found the Evanston Electoral Board's decision to allow their names to remain on the ballot was "clearly erroneous."

Rebeca Mendoza, Evanston/Skokie District 65 school board member and grants officer seeking to represent the 5th Ward, and Eric Young, a restaurant owner and former president of the Main-Dempster Mile merchants association running in the 3rd Ward, will not appear on the April 6 ballot.

Both City Council hopefuls submitted their nominating petition sheets without first securely fastening them together, as required under state law. Illinois appellate courts have found the mandate to bind and number notarized pages of signatures must be applied strictly.

Cook County Associate Judge Alfred Paul sided with objectors Willie Jefferson and Miles Davis, the Evanston residents who who filed suit to reverse last month's electoral board decision that permitted Mendoza's and Young's names to remain on the ballot.

"The election code has this requirement,” Paul said, according to the Evanston RoundTable. “That's what the legislature did in order to preserve the integrity of the electoral process, and that was a law that they passed. All I, as the judge, was saying is that’s a technical rule that was not complied with."

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Neither candidate plans to appeal. Both are exploring possible runs as write-in candidates.

Young said his campaign sought to challenge incumbent 3rd Ward Ald. Melissa Wynne to help small businesses rebuild and bring an increased level of transparency and accountability to the ward.

"I don't want to let the folks down who support me and who put their names on my petitions," Young said after the ruling. "I have to see this through to the end for them, and that's what I want to do."

The electoral board heard testimony that Deputy Clerk Eduardo Gomez told both candidates he would accept unfastened nominating petitions.

Mendoza said she had asked Gomez to use a stapler and was in the process of attempting to bind her sheets when Gomez offered to take them as they were.

"I was happy with the electoral board decision. I think they know our community best, and they ruled in favor of the voters. It's unfortunate that the judicial review did not find it so and overturned the ruling of the electoral board," Mendoza said.

"I was in the middle of fastening and I was stopped by the deputy clerk," she said. "Had the deputy clerk not stopped me, they would have been fastened. There were fasteners on the table."

Mendoza asked 5th Ward residents to let her know if they would support her in a write-in run. The names of Bobby Burns, Tina Foster and Carolyn Murray are already due to appear on the ballot for the ward.

Evanston is holding a primary election for mayor, clerk and aldermen from the 4th and 8th wards on Feb. 23. The top two vote-getters will advance to the April election alongside other aldermanic candidates, although if any one of the three mayoral candidates receives 51 percent of the vote, they will avoid having to compete in a runoff.

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