Plainfield Mayoral Candidate Argoudelis May Be Booted From Ballot

PLAINFIELD, IL — A candidate may be removed from the April 6 election ballot if the Plainfield Electoral Board sustains an objection made against his petition for the office of village president.

John Argoudelis, former Plainfield Township Supervisor and Will County Board member, is running for village president against current trustee Margie Bonuchi. According to Village Clerk Michelle Gibas, Mayor Michael Collins is not running for president this year.

If the objection against Argoudelis is sustained, it would mean an uncontested race for Bonuchi.

The objection, by Plainfield resident Ernest C. Knight, enlists the various ways in which Argoudelis' petition packet is not in compliance with the state laws. He states that when the candidate asked for signatures from residents, at least nine pages of his petition did not mention which office he was seeking election for.

Knight claims that after the qualified voters put in their signatures, Argoudelis entered the office on each page by hand. He also said that information was entered after the pages had been notarized.

This, Knight said, calls into the question the integrity of the petition as it constitutes "false swearings and total disregard of the mandatory provisions of the Illinois Election Code" by Argoudelis.

Furthermore, when Argoudelis voted in the Nov. 3 election, he used an address in Plainfield where he had not been residing since many months prior, Knight said. He even said Argoudelis has not been a Plainfield resident, nor a registered voter in the village, for a year prior to his filling out the petition. In addition, he does not have the required 115 validly collected signatures, according to Knight's claim.

With this in mind, Knight is asking the board to remove Argoudelis' name from the ballot. Chairman of the Electoral Board Michael P. Collins, Village Clerk Michelle Gibas and Trustee Brian Wojowski will render their decision during the Tuesday meeting.

Argoudelis told Patch that the objection is "baseless, and we will prevail and remain on the ballot."

"Ms. Bonuchi and the clique that controls our town are desperately seeking to deny the voters a choice in April and grease the skids to continue their control over local government," he said. "They won’t succeed."

He also said "whatever the electoral board decides can be appealed to the circuit court."

"The Electoral Board is highly political. Knight, Bonuchi and the mayor are political allies. I do not expect the mayor to decide according to the law but rather to vote to help Ms. Bonuchi. Business as usual," Argoudelis said.

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