With filling for school, park, fire protection, library, etc., districts starting Monday, December 15th, and ending Monday December 22nd, I thought a repeal of my petition tips might be in order.
Not many signatures are required. And “signatures” means people must write, not print their names!
Only 15 were required to get on the Crystal Lake City ballot. Even so, one candidate for City Council only handed in 16 and two were from people who didn’t live in Crystal Lake, so they didn’t count.
Pretty much anyone could get enough this weekend.
Petitions can be picked up from most of the district offices, except for school board. They are being distributed by the McHenry County Clerk’s Office in Woodstock. Remember, most of our taxes are imposed by school districts.
(Read how two candidates got removed from the Crystal Lake ballot in this story:
Crystal Lake Incumbents Eliminate Competition
Here are some tips about petition filing that I hope are helpful:
Petition Tips
Filing for all villages, school boards, park districts, fire protection districts, library districts, etc., starts next Monday and continues for a week.
The lessons candidates should learn from this are
- File with the County Clerk a Statement of Economic Interest (known by politicians as the “None, None, None” form). Staple the receipt you receive to your petition package.
- Make sure you number the pages of your petition.
- Make sure you get twice as many petition signatures as you need. (While Crystal Lake Council candidate Jeremy Krick was not thrown off the ballot because two of his sixteen signatures were from people living outside of Crystal Lake, that would have been a good enough reason to do so. Losing those two signatures put him under the required minimum number of fifteen.)
- Make sure you sign the bottom of your petitions or have your supporters sign the bottom of their petitions in front of a notary public and that those notarizing the signatures both sign and affix their stamps to the form’s bottom.
- Staple all of your paperwork together. Do not use a paper clip.
- The Loyalty Oath is not required. The law that provided for it has been held unconstitutional.
How many signatures are needed to run for MCC Trustee?
Showing true colors. Joe G. should be more concerned with getting the best people in the spots they belong in.
No, just playing the same game.
Fifty, I think.
Does “staple” meet the requirement to “bind securely” or should a filer use a blueback or other secure binding method?
Unfortunately, the Election Commission probably will not provide the answer, because they don’t want to give “legal advice”.
The Election Commission certainly COULD provide guidance (examples) to filers about what will and will not meet the requirement.