Story posted Friday, May 29, 2009
What Should Clerk's Role Be In Election?
By RICHARD MAYER Assistant Managing Editor
Mt. Prospect trustees unanimously agreed the village should run as a non-partisan community during local elections.
Village board members also agreed that Village Clerk Lisa Angell should only serve as a liaison when it comes to handing out and collecting nomination papers from candidates.
While the village recently made final determination to follow revised procedures set forth by the State Board of Elections for April's consolidated election, "disparity" generated by the procedural changes warranted further review of village policies including nomination petitions and the role of the village clerk.
According to Village Attorney Buzz Hill, in the past, Mt. Prospect's elections have been considered non-partisan and the board should continue to follow that format, which features a possible primary election before the general election.
However, if the board decides to make any changes to the election process, a referendum would need to be instituted next February, Hill said.
"A referendum is required if we decide we want to be a partisan community or if we decide we want to go back to our old system, which basically allows the board to make their own rules."
For non-partisan communities, candidates in the next election have to collect 1% of signatures based on the previous election vote total. For partisan, it's 10%.
"A referendum would be impossible," said Trustee Michael Zadel. "We should follow state rules to remain a non-partisan community."
"I prefer to remain a non-partisan community," said Trustee John Korn. "This way candidates have to get less signatures."
"I have no interest in moving from non-partisan," said Trustee Arlene Juracek. "With less signatures, more people may run, and at the end of the day, voters will have their say."
The village clerk serves as the "local election official" for the village, and it is policy and practice for Angell to comply with requirements by providing information, file nomination papers, certify candidate names, accept objections and convene the local Electoral Board.
However, according to village officials, each election year Angell seems to be challenged by the "technical aspects" of the filing of nomination papers. Most recently, the question has become whether the village clerk should scrutinize or assist candidates with the "technical" side of filing nomination papers such as physical binding of petitions or numbering of pages.
"The clerk's duty is to accept petitions filed and should not be brought into the process to tell people what to do or to check to see if they filled out everything right," said Hill.
Korn agreed with Hill with one minor modification.
"The clerk should not check it (documents) but she should go over what needs to be done if people have questions," said Korn. "Why make it (election process) more cumbersome?"
"The clerk has done an excellent job disseminating information, but it is not appropriate for her to give legal information (papers filed correctly)," said Trustee Steven Polit.
"There needs to be some responsibility of the candidate to understand the process," said Zadel.
According to Village Manager Michael Janonis, Angell will only make sure candidates have the required documents to file, but beyond that each candidate is on their own.
Trustees will discuss partisanship further at a committee of the whole meeting in September.
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