After three hours of great deliberations, an electoral board made a decision based entirely upon “justice, mercy and humility” when threatened by an outsider, and honestly independent candidate.
The VMA Electoral Board (aka The Ways and Means Committee) has made its royal proclamation, ‘Eliminate every independent candidate from competition with the VMA,’ including Daniel Fore.
Jo Ellen Davey
This decision protects all of us from fraudulent elections. There are many cases where elected officials have been removed from office because they were discovered to be living outside the district that elected them.
Apparently neither Dan Fore nor his attorneys were able to provide any documentation that he resides in Oak Park – and using the South Oak Park Post Office or a P.O. box as his address is definitely not proof of residency.
Jim Kelly
Cook County Clerk David Orr has it right in his statement, “Just as homeless voters deserve the right to cast ballots, homeless candidates have a right to run for office. At a time when more and more Americans are losing their homes, it is imperative they not also lose access to full participation in our democracy – either as voters or officeholders.” Trustee Johnson and Clerk Sokol have misinterpreted the law on this one. Sorry to see the Wednesday Journal in agreement with the decision.
Muriel Quinn
Oak Park
State law sets the requirements for the makeup of the electoral board and requires the village president, clerk and senior village board member to make up the three-person board.
Also, according to state law, recusals by members of the electoral board are allowed only if a member of the electoral board is running for the same office as the candidate being challenged.
In this case, no members of the electoral board are running for office against the challenged candidate.
Mr. Pope did indeed seek a recusal as chair of the electoral board due to his current candidacy for president, but state law is clear and he was advised that he could not recuse himself.
In addition, attorneys for Mr. Fore stated they had no objections to the make-up of the electoral board.
Ray Johnson
Village trustee, member of the Oak Park Electoral Board
