GLENDALE HEIGHTS – Consolidated Election voters in Glendale Heights are not happy with how their choice for village president was handled last week. They are so upset, in fact, that they're planning to protest in front of the DuPage County Clerk's office Tuesday, April 13th at 10 am.
They say their votes, and their voices, were ignored or are purposely being suppressed.
On Friday, April 2nd, the Illinois Supreme Court came down with a decision overturning three lower courts – objecting to the number of petition signatures five-term incumbent Glendale Heights Village President Linda Jackson and another candidate, Ed Pope, submitted for the April 6th election. The Supreme Court's decision tossed Jackson and Pope off the April 6th ballot four days before the election.
The result was confusion at the polls, upset voters and a major loss for President Jackson.
Glendale Heights resident Cheryl Swanson believes the people were cheated out of their right to choose their local officials.
"The court shouldn't make the decision two days before an election," Swanson told Illinois Review. "The people who live there should be the ones making their choice for village president. 'My Vote My Choice.' Too much government is in charge of our choices."
President Jackson said while she has nothing to do with the protest planned for Tuesday, she agrees that the people should be given the right to vote – and that a last minute decision by the Illinois Supreme Court failed to fairly serve Glendale Heights voters.
The dispute that led to the Illinois Supreme Court decision ousting Jackson from the April 6th ballot stems back to confusion about the number of petition signatures required to get on the 2021 Consolidated Election ballot. The village clerk says she was under the impression the consolidated election was considered non-partisan, thus the required number of petition signatures would be 1% (or 24 signatures) based on the previous election turnout.
Instead, the Court agreed the minimum should have been 5%, based on partisan election requirements, and the candidates were running as independents. That meant the number of submitted petition signatures were below the minimum number required to get on the ballot.
"There was much confusion due to COVID," Jackson told Illinois Review. "The clerk and we thought the numbers were lower because there was a concern about too much contact during COVID. Three lower decisions allowed my name on the ballot. I wasn't notified as to their decision until Friday afternoon, April 2nd – only four days before the election."
Jackson said when she learned of the Court's decision, she went to the County Clerk's office and filed paperwork to push a write-in ballot, although she knows of many who voted early – on a ballot that listed her name.
Illinois election law requires write-in candidates to file seven days before an election – and that was impossible to fill, being the week before, Jackson was still legally on the ballot, as determined by the lower decisions.
"When voters went to the polls, they saw notices that said my name nor Ed Popes' had been disqualified from the ballot," Jackson said. "People were confused and upset when they tried to write in my name and the election judges told them they couldn't. And to this day, we haven't seen the Court's reasoning for their decision. They also didn't respond to an emergency reconsideration we filed before the election. And they're also suppressing the votes – I don't know how many people actually voted for me."
In the midst of all the confusion, second candidate Ed Pope tossed his support to Jackson. A fourth candidate, Chodri Ma Khokhar, had been challenged as well, but the Appellate Court reinstated his name on the ballot. The DuPage County election results show Khokhar received 455 votes.
The winner of the April 6th village president election is now listed as Mike Ontiveroz – a remodeling business owner in the area – who, the DuPage County Election website says, received 470 votes – meaning, only 925 votes are being reported.
The village clerk race is reporting 911 more votes than the village president race:
More to come on this story in the days ahead …
