Only one of the six DuPage County candidates who had their nominating paperwork challenged was kicked off the ballot after hearings before the county's electoral board Friday.
This is what I found to be most interesting:
Election commission attorney Pat Bond and commission Chairman Rick Carney were absent from most of the morning's hearings because of possible conflicts of interest. Bond has done work for Zaruba in the past, and either contributed to the campaigns of the other candidates or their opponents. Carney, the county's former recorder, also has been a supporter of the candidates or their opponents.
Attorney Burt Odelson stepped in for Bond during four of the hearings, and Wood Dale Mayor Ken Johnson was appointed by Chief DuPage Judge Stephen Culliton to replace Carney on the electoral board for all six objections.
DuPage County has an independent election commission. (I think this is the only county-wide election commission in Illinois). This article highlights some of the problems with an independent election commission. Many of the people involved with the commission are also highly involved in local politics - creating conflicts when resolving disputes between various candidates. This shouldn't be a surprise. What is kind of surprising is that during the busiest time for any election commission, on what is probably their most important duty next to voter registration, many members of the board are too conflicted to carry that duty out. Maybe the system worked perfectly as those that were conflicted excused themselves from a hearing on the merits. But I can't help but wonder what is the point of paying for an election commission full of people who can't perform their duty? Is there a better way to handle petition challenges in DuPage?
