McHENRY – East Dundee Trustee Allen Skillicorn's property tax freeze referendum is being challenged because the petitions he submitted did not line up with election law guidelines, McHenry County Clerk Mary McClellan said Tuesday afternoon.
Skillicorn's desire to allow McHenry County voters to decide whether their property taxes should be raised was challenged by McClellan's chief deputy Linda FitzGerald as a private citizen, McClellan said.
"In rebuttal [to Skillicorn's assertions in a story posted Tuesday morning], this is not about the content of the referendum," McClellan said in an email. "This was filed not as the Chief Deputy Clerk but as an individual citizen. See attached copy of the reason the objection was filed. It is quite clear."
FitzGerald's complaint says Skillicorn gathered only 92 signatures when referendum petitions for the April 4th, 2017 election are required to have a minimum of 7566 registered voters' signatures.
It also says the notary requirements were not met on several pages of the petition.
The complaint, which will be heard by the local election board, also scolds Skillicorn. He will be sworn into the Illinois House Wednesday.
"The PETITIONER is an elected State Representative and should know the laws of Illinois and abide by those laws," FitzGerald writes.
However, if no challenge had been filed, the question would have appeared on the April 4th, 2017 municipal election ballot – and that's the bigger point, Skillicorn implied.
The state rep-elect suggested to Illinois Review that the McHenry County Clerk and her chief deputy clerk were working together to keep the question off the ballot.
"The clerk personally told me [on January 3] that she was going to check the signature requirements when I dropped it off," Skillicorn said in an email. "I had to remind her that was the responsibility of an objector."
Download FitzGerald's complaint
County Clerk has apparent authority to reject his significantly deficient petition. Rather, he will be getting due process as to his ability to follow the laws of Illinois through the legal remedies as set forth in the Election Code.
The clerk screwed up. She should have rejected the petition outright as it is not in the legal status of “Apparent Conformity”. My question is why is Fitzgerald involved? She should be fired for this. the Clerk has the legal responsibility to follow the law. If there were so few signatures, when 7000 are required, it is not contestable that this petition is not in conformity with Illinois election code and the county clerk should have rejected it outright.