Oak Park Election Case Rejected by Illinois Supreme Court

OAK PARK, IL — The Illinois Supreme Court recently rejected a case regarding the recent April election in Oak Park. The victors of the election have already taken office, so it may be no surprise that the high court rejected a case to challenge the nominating petitions of three candidates on May 24, Oak Park Wednesday Journal reported.

The case had been filed by Kevin Peppard and Robert Milstein in a challenge of petitions filed by three candidates for trustee and village clerk. The nominees included Peter Barber, Glenn Brewer and Lori Malinski, respectively. The case argued that the three candidates had improperly amassed signatures, since they did so jointly instead of independently.

Since the case was first presented in January, the election has passed and none of the three candidates named in the case were voted in. Oak Park Wednesday Journal noted that if any of them had been elected, a Supreme Court vote in favor of the case would have potentially overturned those victories.

Both Brewer and Barber told Oak Park Wednesday Journal that they found it curious that the case had been drawn out so long. Both Brewer and Barber were the only African-American incumbents on the board of trustees during the election. Milstein reportedly speculated that Brewer and Barber “tried to make it a race issue,” Oak Park Wednesday Journal reported.

He added, “We lost in court, but won in the public.”

>>More via Oak Park Wednesday Journal

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