Lawsuits Seek To Toss Two Candidates Off Ballot In Evanston

EVANSTON, IL — Two candidates for Evanston City Council face the possibility of getting knocked off the ballot by a judge.

A pair of lawsuits filed Dec. 14 argue that the Evanston Electoral Board improperly denied objections to 3rd Ward resident Eric Young and 5th Ward resident Rebeca Mendoza at a hearing earlier this month.

Both faced ballot challenges over the way they turned in their nominating petitions.

But the city's three-member municipal officers electoral board granted them each a reprieve from the Illinois Election Code's requirement that nominating petitions "shall be neatly fastened together in book form, by placing the sheets in a pile and fastening them together at one edge in a secure and suitable manner."

Illinois appellate courts have found a lack of binding invalidates petitions.

During testimony at the hearing, both Young and Mendoza admitted they turned in their signature sheets without stapling, clipping or otherwise binding them together. But they each indicated they had been misled by Deputy City Clerk Eduardo Gomez.

Young's attorney argued that being submitted in a manila folder qualifies as "book form." (City attorneys would later draw up factual findings that stated — contrary to testimony at the hearing — that Young filed his petitions in a "manila envelope.")

Mendoza said she never formally served with the objection ahead of the hearing — apparently because the law department mixed up two candidates with the same last name. But she and 8th Ward aldermanic candidate Shelley Carrillo testified that Gomez suggested it was OK to file the unbound petitions.

The objectors asked a Cook County judge to find that the electoral board's ruling was clearly erroneous.

"The Electoral Board's decision applied the standard of 'substantial compliance' to the question of whether [the candidate's] nomination papers were securely fastened in book form rather than 'strict compliance,'" both suits alleged.

Both complaints argue that the electoral board, a quasi-judicial body composed, by law, of Mayor Steve Hagerty, 8th Ward Ald. Ann Rainey and City Clerk Devon Reid, improperly based its decision on the candidates' "purported reliance" on things Gomez told them while turning in their petitions.

The complaints also point out the board's decision mistakenly cites the part of state law concerning established party candidates rather than nonpartisan candidates. Evanston has a nonpartisan electoral system.

Related:
Write-In Candidates Trigger Clerk, Aldermanic Primaries In Evanston
Evanston Electoral Board Issues Rulings On Candidate Objections
Mendoza Mix-Up: Evanston Law Department Serves Wrong Candidate
Objections To Candidates Set For Evanston Electoral Board Hearing

The plaintiffs in the case are both represented by veteran election attorney Ed Mullen. Miles Davis filed the objection against Young in the 3rd Ward, while Willie Jefferson filed the objection to Mendoza's bid to get on the ballot in the race for 5th Ward.

Young is seeking to join incumbent 3rd Ward Ald. Melissa Wynne and Nicholas Korzeniowski on the ballot for the April 6 election.

Mendoza aims to join candidates Bobby Burns, Tina Foster and Carolyn Murray on the ballot in the race to succeed 5th Ward Ald. Robin Rue Simmons, who declined to seek a second term on the City Council.

Evanston is set for Feb. 23 primary for the race for mayor, 4th Ward alderman, 8th Ward alderman and city clerk — despite only one candidate for clerk being on the ballot — after enough people declared themselves write-in candidates to trigger a runoff requirement.