The Village of South Jacksonville Electoral Board’s attorneys filed more paperwork today in Morgan County Court seeking to end a Village President candidate’s campaign to be fully restored to the April Consolidated Election ballot. With less than 36 hours to go before Tyson Manker’s lawsuit in Morgan County Court will be heard, the board’s attorneys filed an 8-page answer to Manker’s petition to have his name restored to the ballot.
The answer, according to Illinois statute, was unnecessary to be filed. Under statute of the Illinois Constitution for electoral board authority and relief of their decisions found in section 5/10-10.1, the law specifically says: “No answer to the petition need be filed, but the electoral board shall cause the record of proceedings before the electoral board to be filed with the clerk of the court on or before the date of the hearing.”
In the filing, the Electoral Board says there was no confusion surrounding Manker’s opponent, Dick Samples’ objection to Manker’s candidacy, despite Samples possibly not naming any particular relief. The Board says in the filing that Manker’s motion to strike and dismiss the objection stands based on the objection to his candidacy on the grounds he did not file a statement of economic interest with the Morgan County Circuit Clerk’s office. Manker says he has proof of an email that he was told by Circuit Clerk Jill Waggoner to file the statement at South Jacksonville Village Hall.
The hearing on Manker’s suit is slated for 2PM tomorrow in front of Circuit Judge Chris Reif. Manker said last week on his Facebook Campaign page that he has filed the necessary paperwork to be a write-in candidate if the court does not rule in his favor. As WLDS News reported on February 9th, village taxpayers in the month of January have already paid for nearly $6,700 in legal fees in the case.