Thanks to another new element on McHenry County Clerk Mary McClellan’s web site, one can find the names of school board candidates who have had their petitions challenged.
There are three high school candidates in addition to the three Harrison Elementary School Board candidates reported earlier. They were filed by Wonder Lake’s Bob Anderson.
All who have been challenged can be seen below:
School board candidates whose candidacies have been challenged.
In Crystal Lake the high school candidate who is first on the ballot–Gerald Gross has been challenged by Justin Hubly. Were he to be removed from the ballot, Rosemary Kurtz would have that most favored spot.
In the McHenry High School Board race, two candidates are being challenged:
- Paul Lotz
- William Stanton
Neither are incumbents.
There has to be a better way to handle the rules of gathering signatures by political candidates in Illinois.
How about a Powerpoint and / or a YouTube video to better explain existng rules.
The Illinois rules for petition requirements are more nit picky than many other states.
During Barack Obama’s first run for a political office to the Illinois State Senate in 1996 he knocked all his competition off the ballot with petition challenges.
This is a bit late, but should be filed away for future reference by any non-incumbent thinking about running for school board in a future election.
Illinois Association of School Boards (IASB) has links to excellent sources of information on preparing and filing nominating petitions that meet legal requirements and avoid grounds for objections.
I’m thinking that very few non-incumbents are aware of this free and easily accessible information.
My hope is that by making this resource widely available, potential candidates will be able to avoid the petition challenge bloodsport that eliminates so many from the ballot and denies voter choice.