Objection Filed Against Plainfield Trustee Petition In 2025 Election

PLAINFIELD, IL — An objection was filed against the petitions of a Plainfield trustee candidate, village documents show.

The objection seeks to deny or reject certification of Nicky Giannasi's nomination papers for the consolidated election on April 1, 2025. The Plainfield licensed clinical professional counselor filed his petition at 12:08 p.m. Nov. 18, the last day to file for candidacy.

Giannasi, who is also listed by the Will County Clerk's Office as a Republican Plainfield 010 precinct committeeperson whose term ends in March 2026, is one of five candidates to file for the three trustee seats — currently held by Patricia Kalkanis, Cally Larson and Tom Ruane — up for grabs in the upcoming election. Trustee positions carry a four-year term.

Plainfield resident Trista Lee Countryman filed the objection, claiming Giannasi's nomination papers — containing 28 pages of petition sheets, a statement of candidacy and a statement of economic interests filing receipt — "purport to contain signatures in excess of the statutory requirement" and were filed "as a stack of loose, unbound pages, with no fastener of any kind," according to the objection document.

The Illinois Election Code notes all nomination petition sheets "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."

"The complete lack of any attempt to bind the individual pages of the Nomination Papers together violates the mandatory requirements of Section 10-4 of the Illinois Election Code and undermine the integrity of the electoral process," the objection reads.

The document concludes by stating the petition papers "contain less than the statutorily required minimum number of signatures of qualified voters in the Village of Plainfield, Counties of Will and Kendall, State of Illinois, as is set forth by the aforementioned signature objections and made by the Objector in this Petition."

The Municipal Officers Electoral Board, consisting of Mayor John Argoudelis, Village Clerk Michelle Gibas and Trustee Brian Wojowski, will hold a meeting at 11 a.m. Thursday at Village Hall to vote on whether to meet or pass on the objection.

On Nov. 26, Giannasi submitted a formal request to recuse Argoudelis from the electoral board on the grounds that he is a candidate for village president, has openly endorsed two trustee candidates, and "may be called as a witness given his role as Village President." Three days later, he submitted a second letter requesting Gibas recuse herself since she "will be called as a witness."

"I trust that the board will take the appropriate steps to ensure a fair and unbiased hearing," he wrote in both letters.

Giannasi did not respond to Patch's request for comment at the time of publication.

RELATED: Plainfield 2025 Consolidated Election: Who Filed For Mayor, Trustee

Editor's note: The electoral board meeting is taking place Thursday, not Friday as the previous version of this article stated. Patch apologizes for the error.