The following is a press release from the Winfield Township Democrats regarding their legal proceedings with an ongoing dispute over their ballot access in the April 6th election for Township offices. The Winfield Democrats say it is a “conflict-of-interest” that the electoral board who previously ruled them off the ballot is comprised of some of their opponents in the April election. Since this release was first sent to local media on January 25th, Winfield Township Trustees voted 3-1 (on February 8th) to file an appeal to Judge Craig Belford’s decision that allowed the Democratic candidates to remain on the ballot. This information has yet to be published by any media and is presented here as an unedited statement from the Winfield Township Democratic Party:
*Edit: Due to formatting issues on the website, this PDF is a better way to view the press release below: http://winfield.dupagedemocrats.org/press1.pdf
” For Immediate Release
On Monday, January 25th, at a Petition for Judicial Review for three cases of Democratic
candidates for office in Winfield Township, DuPage County Judge Craig Belford ruled that they
should appear on the ballot for the April 6, 2021 consolidated election. Maury Goodman from
Warrenville is the Democratic candidate for Winfield Township Supervisor, Judith M. Lukas
from Warrenville is a candidate for Township Trustee, and Shawn Patrick Hacker from West
Chicago is also a candidate for Township Trustee. The current township officers are all
Republicans. The Democratic challengers were nominated at the caucus on December 1, 2020,
but on January 6, 2021, two Winfield Township electoral boards, responding to an objection
from Edward Halley of Warrenville, ruled that they shouldn’t appear on the ballot because of a
technical issue with the paperwork. Judge Belford’s ruling today overturned that decision. The
ruling stated that although the one page in dispute should have had a notary stamp, the
requirement appeared nowhere in state statute, was not mandatory, and the technical issue did
not rise to the level of removing candidates from the ballot. “We are just glad that the courts
gave a just ruling, and that it was quickly enough to get our names back on the ballots before
DuPage County prints them,” said Shawn Hacker. “The boards who ruled us off the ballot
included our Republican opponents – newly appointed incumbent Nicole Prater for Supervisor;
Barbara Alekna for Trustee, and Donald Voelz for Trustee.” Newly appointed Township Clerk,
Michael Guglielmi, also sat on the electoral boards. Judith Lukas said, “I’m glad this ill-fated
Republican scheme to deprive Winfield Township voters of a choice did not stand. It’s a shame
they wasted so much taxpayer money in the attempt.”
The caucus paperwork was filed in the Township office on December 14, 2020 by Lynn Maher,
chair of the Winfield Township Democratic Organization and chair of the December 1 st caucus,
including the single disputed page, along with other required and notarized documents. She
recounted, “I trusted that the Winfield Township Officials would be honest with me when I filed
the paperwork and in retrospect, they were coy and trying to be tricky and confusing. I am not
surprised that the same person who told me I could file the document without a notary stamp
later voted that it was invalid without that stamp. But I’m glad that now voters will have a
choice in the April election for these often-overlooked offices.”
The objector, Edward Halley, father of current Winfield Township Trustee Zachary Halley, once
served on the Warrenville City Council with the Democratic candidate for Supervisor, Maury
Goodman. “If my former colleague, Mr. Halley, thought the paperwork was improper, or even if
he just wanted to create mischief, he had every right to challenge the paperwork. But I am
doubly disappointed that on January 6th, the same day there was a major assault on democracy in
D.C., there was also a tiny assault on democracy by Winfield Township officials. First, they
structured the electoral boards so that they followed the letter of the state law, but blatantly
violated the spirit. In a dispute based on a single document and a single issue, they split this into
three cases to be heard by two electoral boards, so that they were ruling their own opponents off
the ballot. They should have recognized this obvious conflict-of-interest. Second, during the
hearing, none of them discussed the actual requirements in Illinois statutes for Township
elections after a Democratic or Republican caucus. And none of them asked the Township
attorney what the relevant law was. It seemed they had made up their minds in advance.”
The Winfield Township Democratic Party hopes people vote in the April elections. Voters can
put in their vote-by-mail requests online now at
https://www.dupageco.org/Election/VoteByMail/. “
—Nick Mastro
DuPage Politics 