Appellate Court Disqualifies Village President Candidate From Ballot
An Appellate Court recently upheld an Electoral Board's decision to disqualify a candidate for village president based on lack of residency in Poulos v. Smith.
A candidate filed nomination petitions and other candidacy paperwork last fall to run for office of village president. The filing attested that the candidate resides in the village in which she is running for office. An objection was filed against her candidacy arguing that she did not reside in the village for the statutorily required period and instead lived in a neighboring municipality.
The Municipal Officers Electoral Board conducted a hearing on the objection. At the hearing, the candidate argued that she had resided in the village since 1990 and that the other property she owned was an investment property. She also presented evidence that she received mail at the village address, her drivers license indicated the village address, on of her vehicles was registered to the village address, and her voter registration was the village address. The objectors presented counter evidence that the village property was a rental, and she was not listed as an occupant of that home. The objectors also presented evidence of a renter application that indicated the candidate's address in a different community, and that she was not receiving a "homeowners exemption" for the village property. She had also registered a second vehicle to this other address.
At the conclusion of the hearing, the Electoral Board issued a written order ordering the candidate's name not be placed on the ballot, finding that she had abandoned her residency in the village in 2019 when she bought the home in the other community, and that she took up residency at that other home on or before February 25, 2024. She appealed to the circuit court, which reversed the Electoral Board's ruling, finding that although there was evidence that she was residing in both homes, the fact that her voter registration remained in the village was persuasive as to her residency there.
The case was again appealed, this time to the Appellate Court which reversed the circuit court and reinstated the Electoral Board's ruling that the candidate was not qualified to be on the ballot for the office of village president because she failed to meet the residency requirements. The Appellate Court acknowledged that the issue of residency and abandonment of that residency was a close one in this case because certain evidence, including her voter records, supported village residency. However, the Court found that the tax records and rental license applications indicating residency in another municipality was compelling, and supported the Electoral Board's ruling that she was not qualified to run for the office of village president.
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