Judge Declares New Winner In April 2019 VVSD Board Election

ROMEOVILLE, IL - The Valley View School District 365U is saying goodbye to one school board member and welcoming in a new one. The move comes after Will County Circuit Court Judge Roger Rickmon ordered that the Will County Clerk’s Office amend the April 2, 2019 results in the Valley View School District school board race on Tuesday.

Judge Rickmon has ruled that James “JT” Boudouris is the declared the winner of the April 2019 election.

The results of the election had previously shown Dr. Sandra Carlson received 3,294 votes for the final available seat on the Board while Boudouris received 3,291 votes. Boudouris contested the election results and subsequently filed a petition for a recount in the Will County Circuit Court.

Following the review of the ballots, Judge Rickmon heard further evidence and examined contested ballots and found that eight ballots were incorrectly counted and should not have been allowed under the law. As a result, Judge Rickmon ruled Tuesday that Boudouris had 3,291 ballots cast in his favor to Dr. Carlson’s 3,286.

Judge Rickmon declared Mr. Boudouris the winner of the April election by five votes, and administered the oath of office to Mr. Boudouris to serve as a board member effective immediately, according to Jim Blaney, the spokesperson for Valley View School District 365U.

"The District extends its gratitude to Dr. Carlson for her time as a member of the VVSD Board of Education," Blaney said in a news release.

Will County Clerk’s Office Responds To Court Ruling

According to the Will County Clerk's Office, Judge Rickmon discarded eight votes for Carlson in court on Tuesday because election judges at either a polling place or an early voting location did not initial blank ballots before they were issued to the voter.

"The County Clerk’s Office was disappointed by the judge’s decision to disregard those eight votes cast in only five precincts in the Valley View School District. The County Clerk’s Office, in a court response filed in June, argued strongly that if ballots without initials were to be disregarded, the standard should have been applied to every precinct in the district, not just the five selected by the challenger," said Charles B. Pelkie Jr., a spokesperson for the Will County Clerk's Office.

He added that his office was prepared to devote resources needed for a district-wide examination of all ballots.

Along with expressing disappointment in the ruling, Pelkie said that training for more than 1,500 election judges needs improvement.

The Will County Clerk took office in December and began preparing for the April 2 Consolidated Election utilizing training practices that already had been established, said Pelkie. The process of improving those practices already has begun and and reportedly includes:

• Revamping its training manual to make it easier for election judges to understand and use.
• Creating online training videos to refresh and guide election judges on key procedures as Election Day approaches.
• Developing plans to update election judges on key issues – the initialing of ballots now being the top priority – in advance of early voting and Election Day.

With more than 1,500 Election Judges in the field on Election Day and during Early Voting, the Clerk’s Office said it acknowledges the potential for human error.

"Our goal is to provide the best training to eliminate occurrences of human error that might impact the will of the voters," said Pelkie. "In addition to improving training, the Will County Clerk’s Office will work with our state lawmakers to determine whether legislation might prevent these situations from occurring in the future."

What The Candidates Are Saying

Patch has reached out to both James “JT” Boudouris and Dr. Sandra Carlson for reaction to the judge's ruling. At this time, we are still waiting to hear back. However, Bourdouris did issue a statement to Enterprise Newspapers on Wednesday.

"I am super excited about the outcome," Boudouris told the newspaper. "We never came out and said there was fraud. I think very highly of Lauren Staley Ferry (Will County Clerk) and her staff. I don't think they did anything unbecoming of their jobs. There is no validation on the ballot. For everything I know, the law was followed. There was no disagreement by the judge, myself and my lawyer and the Clerk's office that uninitialled ballots were to be counted. All of the validated ballots were counted."