The Democrat Party is contesting petitions of at least five county board members despite two Democrat candidates having the same exact failures when it comes to numbering petitions. Candidates are suppose to number their three pages of petitions per statute, but the McLean County Republican chair said this is a technicality and is combative.
“You have five of the county board candidates whose petitions have been challenged at the very last minute by democrats in our community and on a very minor technicality. The irony is that they have two of their own candidates that have the same error, minor error and technicality,” said chairwoman Connie Beard. “We opt not to challenge that because we believe voters ought to have a choice.”
The five Republicans who are contested are:
Catherine Metsker
John D. McIntyre
Hannah Blumenshine
Vicki Schultz
Annette Fellows
Beard said what is frustrating is that the Democrats know that the GOP can still slate these candidates.
“So all they’ve done is kind of muddy the waters and throw in a headline or two in an effort to gain that notoriety, but the reality is we’ll still be able to slate these candidates. It’s going to have to make us work harder and going to cost the taxpayers more money,” said Beard.
The statute says: “”Such sheets, before being presented to the electoral board or filed with the proper officer of the electoral district or division of the state or municipality, as the case may be, 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, and the sheets shall then be numbered consecutively.”
So what’s the next step to getting these candidates on the ballot?
By Certified Mail and Sheriff’s offices delivers a notice of the objections and the hearing date, which is set at the Law and Justice Center, in an actual courtroom, with County Clerk Kathy Michael as the chair.
The date is 1 pm Monday, March 28, room 503.
“Election authorities often have challenges of petitions. They file a formal document with our office,” said Kathy Michael, County Clerk. “It’s the candidates’ responsibility to complete their forms correctly. We can’t go through each candidates’ paperwork, that would be giving legal advice, which we cannot do, and we could be accused of helping one political party over another.”
The minimum amount of signatures needed for these candidates were 24, and she said all candidates exceeded that requirement.
“We all make mistakes, but to use that mistake as an opportunity to deny voters a choice is a telling action in my mind,” said Beard. “The reason for this statute is to deal with candidates who file pages and pages and pages of petition signatures.”
Beard said when the focus is on the benefit of trying to stay in power rather than trying to serve the voter, that’s when you are going to go wrong.
“That’s when you are going to get off track. Like I said we will still slate these people, we will still find a way to get them on the ballot. The process would be that these objections come before a three panel commission,” said Beard. “The commission will determine if the objections have to be followed and honored and the ballots have to be struck. There is legal precedent for both sides. There’s legal precedent for keeping them and legal precedent for taking them off.”
Beard said the GOP will certainly abide by the commissioner’s ruling, because they do believe in law and order and that’s fine… but they also know the options are there.
A guide is provided to candidates by the county clerk, and it lays out the nomination process. The last day for established party managing committee (legislative and representative) to appoint someone to fill a vacancy when no candidate was nominated at the General Primary Election is July 25, 2022. This is the last day for the appointee to file the required documentation.
Full names of Democrat Objectors:
Jill Blair
Shayna Watchinski
Anna Darrow
Cara McMorris
Sarah Breeden
This story is developing
