On a cloudy Friday afternoon, the Livingston County Electoral Board decided that Tony Childress lacked the required number of valid signatures to become a candidate for County Sheriff in the upcoming November elections.

 

According to the initial count, the Board approved a total of 778 signatures in support of Childress' candidacy. However, a late e-mail from Assistant States Attorney, Carey Luckman, to Childress attorney, Carl Draper, indicates the current total shows a deficit of only two signatures. The Board had overlooked an approved petition sheet with eight valid names.

 

With stacks of paper representing judgments, rulings, court cases and miscellaneous documentation before them, the trio of Luckman, Kristy Masching, and Connie McDougal, deliberated for four hours before proclaiming their verdict.

 

At issue was the very complicated and obscure Illinois electoral law, which leaves great latitude to a local board to determine the validity of candidate petitions.

 

In a back and forth debate the Board tossed out signatures it deemed invalid, and accepted others that appeared to be "in substantial compliance" with the dictates of the law.

 

For instance, the Board eliminated petitions lacking the circulator's name and date, as well as petitions not circulated by the signer. The Board also threw out petitions circulated by people who had previously circulated petitions for the February primary. This last decision was reached only after extensive research into a murky and debatable area of election law.

 

Conversely, the Board approved petition sheets that bore undated notarization, with Luckman ruling that the notary law was not germane to requirements under election law. Printed signatures were also allowed, as were the controversial petition sheets left on a counter at the DeLong restaurant.

 

The Board determined that there was no "pattern of fraud" indicated in the process, although Board members were dismayed at the number of minor inconsistencies and incompleteness of some of the forms. They found no "blatant disregard of the electoral process."

 

Childress expressed appreciation to the Board for a deliberative and fair assessment of his petitions. Attorney Draper said the Board went out of their way to be fair, a sentiment also expressed by McGlasson attorney, Steve Laduzinsky.