A candidate for Village President of South Jacksonville will remain off the ballot after a ruling by the 4th District Appellate Court of Illinois yesterday.
Tyson Manker will remain a write-in candidate for Village President after the 4th District Appellate Court ruled against his appeal to have his name restored to the ballot. Citizens will have to write his name on ballots in order to vote for him in the April 6th Consolidated Election.
The Morgan County Circuit Court had ruled on February 17th to affirm the ruling of the Village of South Jacksonville Electoral Board denying Manker’s motion to strike and dismiss his opponent, Richard “Dick” Samples’ objection to Manker’s nominating petition. The Morgan County Circuit Court sided with the Village of South Jacksonville Board’s ruling that Manker petitions were invalid because it did not include a receipt from the Morgan County Clerk’s Office for an economic interest form, which is required by Illinois Election Code. Manker had said during the hearing before the Electoral Board that the Morgan County Clerk Jill Waggonner had told him by email to file the form in the Village Office when he turned in his nominating petition. The Electoral Board ruled 3-0 that Samples’ objection was valid, and struck Manker’s name from the ballot. Manker then pursued relief in the local circuit court against the decision, saying that Samples’ did not name specific relief in his objection to Manker’s petition.
Justice John W. Turner affirmed the original ruling by the electoral board and found that Samples relief in the objection, though not stated in his objection to the Electoral Board, was “apparent” thus affirming the original ruling.
In FOIA requested documents from March 16th, attorney invoices for this particular objection process has cost South Jacksonville taxpayers $10,395.82 in legal fees, which excludes filing fees and court costs for any legal work after February 16th.
Manker remains a valid write-in candidate for the position, and has currently planned a pre-election bash for April 5th at Woodyard’s in South Jacksonville. Samples and Manker have not commented publicly on the Appellate Court’s decision.
The April Consolidated election is now just 9 days away.