All Five Oak Park Trustee Candidates Oppose Nominating Petition Challenge

OAK PARK, IL — All five Oak Park trustee candidates have requested an end to a legal challenge that seeks to remove three of the candidates from the upcoming April ballot, Chicago Tribune reports. Two Oak Park residents filed the petition challenge, which has been an ongoing roadblock for village trustees Glenn Brewer and Peter Barber, who are seeking re-election, along with Lori Malinski, a candidate for village clerk. There are three trustee seats up for grabs in the upcoming election.

According to The Chicago Tribune, villagers Robert Milstein and Kevin Peppard assert that the three candidates should have filed their signature petitions individually instead of jointly.
The challenge was first filed in January and has since been heard by Oak Park’s electoral board, a judge in Cook County, and an Illinois Appellate Court. Each of these ruled in the candidates’ favor. The case may soon be tried in the Illinois Supreme Court if the challenge is not dropped.

Glenn Brewer, an incumbent trustee who is one of the candidates told the Chicago Tribune that “this is an attempt to disenfranchise voters in Oak Park,” arguing that the issue should be focused on "whether or not [voters] believe we are qualified to be on the village board of trustees." In the meantime, each of the candidates in question will still appear on the April 4 ballots, which were printed in March.

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