Teen Candidate Cleared To Appear On Ballot As Challenge Withdrawn

GLENVIEW, IL — A group of Glenview residents who retained an attorney in an attempt to remove from the ballot the village's lone independent candidate for trustee withdrew their objections Wednesday. The move followed a check of voter registration records at the Cook County Clerk's Office that found candidate Benjamin Polony had more than enough valid signatures to become the seventh candidate for Glenview Village Board in the April 2 election.

Polony, 19, will be cleared to appear on the ballot in the coming days once the three members of the Glenview Electoral Board sign off on an order to formally end the case, according to Village Attorney Eric Patt, who also represents the electoral board consisting of the village president, its senior trustee and its village manager in his capacity as clerk.

In a check of voter registration records, the clerk's office determined 222 of the 286 signatures submitted by Polony were valid. The objectors, Elizabeth Brown, Kathleen Gazda, Judith Traynor and William Traynor had filed objections to 162 petition signatures. The clerk's office overruled 98 of them and agreed with 64 of them, finding that Polony still had 26 signatures more than the minimum required.

At Wednesday morning's review, the Polony campaign said it would have sought to challenge all but five of the sustained objections. However, the objectors withdrew their attempt to remove Polony's name from the ballot before the hearing could continue with the village electoral board's consideration of the clerk's office's findings and a motion to dismiss the challenge outright.

"This is a victory for Glenview voters, as now they will get more choices than just two parties," Polony told Patch Thursday. "My opponents thought they could take an independent choice away, they were wrong."

In addition to option of voting for the University of Illinois at Chicago sophomore, Glenview voters will be presented with two full slates of candidates in a village board election for the first time since 2001.

The Citizens for Glenview slate – Mary Cooper, District 30 School Board President Chuck Gitles and Trustee Michael Jenny – was selected through the traditional caucus process. A rival party, Better Government in Glenview, is challenging the caucus slate with Tom Greenhaw, Dia Morgan and Cathy Wilson.

Gazda, one of the objectors to Polony's candidacy, also circulated nominating petitions for the Better Government in Glenview Party slate, the Glenview Journal reported.

Wilson and Greenhaw have declined to comment on any connection between their slate and the petition challenge. Mary Ryan Norwell, the lawyer for the objectors, has not responded to a request for comment. But the caucus-selected slate had nothing to do with the objections to Polony's campaign, Citizens for Glenview campaign manager and former Trustee Paul Detlefs told Patch.

"Come April the voters will decide who they want to give Glenview direction, not a slate of 3 candidates," Polony said. He said he would be holding a meet and greet event Saturday at Rock House Cafe in Glenview with District 73.5 school board candidate and fellow college student Bushra Amiwala.

Three village trustee seats will be filled with the April election. Just one incumbent, Jenny, is seeking a new term. Trustee Philip White is stepping down, while Scott Britton resigned after he was elected in November to the Cook County Board for the 14th District. Village President Jim Patterson said he planned to name a temporary replacement for Britton's seat at Tuesday's village board meeting.

Related:

• Glenview Electoral Board Hears Challenge To Teen's Candidacy
• 19-Year-Old Glenview Trustee Candidate's Signatures Challenged
• 7 Candidates Running For 3 Seats On Glenview Village Board