Electoral Board upholds objections to city council candidates

Two candidates for Carbondale City Council were removed from contention Tuesday after the city's Municipal Officers Electoral Board upheld objections to their candidacies.

The electoral board voted unanimously to uphold objections filed against current Councilwoman Ginger Rye Sanders, as well as fellow candidate Ryan Reed.

The objections alleged both candidates failed to file receipts of their statements of economic interest, and also failed to properly bind their petitions.

The electoral board, which includes Mayor Carolin Harvey, City Clerk Jennifer Sorrell and City Councilman Adam Loos, upheld similar objections last week against a third candidate, current Councilman LaCaje Hill.

However, the city and the Illinois Attorney General’s Office currently are reviewing the legality of Hill’s hearing since no public notification preceded it.

While each candidate still has the option to appeal to the circuit court, they now face a looming deadline of Dec. 19 — the date for the city clerk to certify next spring's ballot.

Reed and Rye Sanders both represented themselves at Tuesday's hearings, while local attorney Darrell Dunham represented the objector in both cases, Navreet Kang. Both candidates questioned Kang's citizenship status, and therefore his legal standing to challenge their bids.

"How does the objector's claim align with the rights and responsibilities of voters within Carbondale's election district?" Reed asked. "What legal authority does the objector have to interfere with the democratic rights of Carbondale residents if they are not a qualified voter?"

Dunham said that while he couldn't document Kang's citizenship on the spot, his client's long history in Carbondale strongly suggested that he was a U.S. citizen.

“I know he served on this same city council for a number of years,” Dunham said. “I know that you cannot run for office in the state of Illinois unless you're a citizen. I know he's campaigned for county board. I have no doubt in my mind he's a U.S. citizen.”

Loos asked if the burden was on the candidates to substantiate that allegation against the objector, and City Attorney Jamie Snyder, advising the board, affirmed that it was.

Facing the board's decision, Reed ultimately took the blame for what happened to him.

“It was a minor error on my part, and I take full responsibility,” Reed said.

The separate hearing to review the objections involving Rye Sanders became tense at times, with City Clerk Sorrell recusing herself from the board on the question of whether Rye Sanders properly bound her petitions. This was in order for Sorrell to provide witness testimony on the acceptance of Rye Sanders' documents and to address whether they were properly bound with a paperclip. Rye Sanders said a paperclip was present, but Sorrell insisted otherwise.

“As the petitions are pushed toward me under our barrier, they were placed directly into a file folder exactly as they were submitted to me,” Sorrell said, describing her process for accepting candidate documents.

Rye Sanders insisted there was a paperclip holding her documents together.

“I always put paperclips on documents or anything that I have, because 20 years of being a secretary, that's what you do,” she said.

“There was no paperclip to remove,” Sorrell said. “That's my testimony.”

On the matter of her receipt of statement of economic interest, Rye Sanders said that since she currently serves on the city council, she has such a statement already on file with the city. However, since no receipt of that statement was included with her nominating papers as required, the board held her to a strict reading of election laws.

In each of the cases, Loos made a point of addressing those state election laws and how some of them came to be.

"The law is what the law is,” Loos said. “The folks who write these laws are mostly in the Chicago metro area. Down here, politics is a contact sport. In Chicago, it's a blood sport."

Objections to city council candidacies in Carbondale are fairly rare, and three in one cycle is unheard of in recent memory.

The paring of the ballot also sets up one of the smallest fields of candidates in recent memory, with just five candidates vying for three open seats. Those candidates now include Nathan Colombo, Lee M. Fronabarger, Dawn Roberts, Brian Stanfield and Jason M. Endicott.

No primary will be required. The election will be held on Tuesday, April 1.