Objections To Candidates Set For Evanston Electoral Board Hearing

EVANSTON, IL — Less than a week after the Illinois State Board of Elections officially certified the results of last month's general election, local election authorities are preparing to determine who appears on the ballot in next year's municipal primary and general elections.

Six objectors have filed challenges to the nominating petitions of five candidates running for aldermen and clerk in April. The Evanston Electoral Board, made up of the mayor, longest-serving alderman and city clerk, is scheduled to meet Monday to hear the objections ahead of a Dec. 17 deadline to certify candidates.

The objections include: failures to securely bind signature sheets, potentially insufficient valid signatures, a separately filed statement of candidacy and one petition that did not specify which ward the candidate seeks to represent.

If sustained by a majority of the board, the challenges have the potential to make two races on the April 6 ballot uncontested.

Two objections were filed to nomination petitions filed by Eric Young in the race for 3rd Ward alderman, who, along with 5th Ward hopeful Rebeca Mendoza, did not bind their petitions before turning them in. Illinois courts have deemed that invalidates the entire petition.

One of the objectors to Young is the husband of the 3rd Ward incumbent Ald. Melissa Wynne, attorney David Foster. He prepared 29-point detailed objections to Young’s signatures. In the other objection to the unbound petitions, veteran election attorney Ed Mullen, who is representing three of the six objectors, merely pointed to the lack of binding.

In the 7th Ward, objector Yvi Russel seeks to keep incumbent Ald. Eleanor Revelle off the ballot for submitting her statement of candidacy separately from her signature sheets and not bound together, suggesting it qualifies as two sets of nomination papers.

In addition to the requirement to file signature sheets bound together, state law requires candidates to submit a notarized statement of candidacy and a separate statement of economic interest to get their name printed on the ballot.

Shelley Carrillo faces an objection from an 8th Ward resident Tom Oser and 5th Ward resident Nikole Mitchell Hall after she collected signatures for the office of "alderman," rather than specifying 8th Ward, where she lives. Her petitions also contain signatures from residents of other wards.

Because two members of the Electoral Board are running for 8th Ward alderman, the next most senior aldermen are set to be called into service on the board.

Incumbent Ald. Ann Rainey and City Clerk Devon Reid confirmed to Evanston Patch they consider themselves ineligible to hear objections to Carrillo's candidacy. Next in line of seniority is Wynne, an alderman since 1997, followed by 1st Ward Ald. Judy Fiske or 4th Ward Ald. Don Wilson, both elected in 2009.

RELATED: Evanston City Council Candidates File Paperwork For 2021 Election

Only one candidate for citywide office had their nominating paperwork challenged.

In the race for city clerk, former 7th Ward Ald. Jane Grover faces a objection from Allison Harned, marking a role reversal from the last time Evanston's Electoral Board convened.

In January, Grover and two other objectors successfully kept a referendum question called Evanston Voter Initiative — for which Harned campaigned — off the ballot. A Cook County judge upheld the decision the next month and was affirmed by an appeals court in March.

With three candidates for mayor — Daniel Biss, Lori Keenan and Sebastian Nalls — and no objections to their candidacies, the city is set for a Feb. 23 primary with at least that office on the ballot.

Thanks to a 1992 referendum, more than two declared candidates trigger a mayoral primary in Evanston. If one of them gets more than 50 percent of the vote, they win outright without having to face the voters again six weeks later.

According to state law, at least five candidates are required to force a primary in municipalities with nonpartisan elections — but not all of them have to be on the ballot.

Candidates have until Dec. 17 to file a declaration of intent to be a write-in candidate if they wish to force a primary, according to the Illinois State Board of Elections' 2021 election calendar, although write-in candidates may still get their votes counted in April if they declare their candidacy before Dec. 24.

The electoral board is set to meet via video-teleconferencing software at 9 a.m. Monday to hear all six objections. Board members may vote to dismiss objections, sustain them all or in part, or seek voter registration checks from the county before determining which candidates to include on the ballot.