Challenges to City Committee and Council petitions

The contests continue with the challenge phase.

Plainfield's Democratic politics is now in the period when challenges to the petitions for City Committee (PDCC) seats are being reviewed.

The deadline for challenges was Friday afternoon, and several were made by various candidates.

I will summarize with a table below ( for a complete list of all candidates, see my post here) story continues below table --

CHALLENGER WARD/DISTRICT REASON(S) FOR CHALLENGE Brian Munroe 2-01 - lines 4-26 Not circulated by person on affidavit. James Spear 2-08 - lines 2,3,6,7,8,9, 10, 11, 12, 13 and 15 Not a registered Democrat, signor also signed petition of another slate, alleged 'signor' out of town or moved, Circulator other than affidavit. Adrian Mapp 1-01 - several lines Petitioner not a registered Democrat, not a registered voter, signature challenges. 1-02 Failure to provide required number of valid signatures. 1-03- several lines Not registered in this district, not a registered voter, signature challenges. 1-04- several lines Not registered voter, registered as Republican, signature challenges. 1-06- several lines Petitioner registered as Unaffiliated. 1-08 Failure to provide requisite number of signatures. 2-05 Failure to provide requisite number of signatures. 2-07- several lines Not registered to vote, signature challenge. 2-11- several lines Not registered to vote, signature challenges. 3-04 Failure to provide requisite number of signatures. 3-07- several lines Signature challenges. 3-08- several lines Signature challenges. 3-09 Failure to provide requisite number of signatures. 3-10- several lines Not registered to vote, signor registered in another district. 4-01- several lines Not registered to vote, signor registered in another district. 4-02- several lines Not registered to vote, signature challenges. 4-03- several lines Petitioner not registered in district, signors not registered, signature challenges. 4-04 Failure to provide requisite number of signatures.

Challenges are reviewed; anyone disqualified may appeal to a county judge, whose ruling is final.

Typically, the grounds for disqualifying a signature from a petition are that the person is a) not a registered Democrat or b) not a resident of the district in which the petition was circulated. Either of these can be determined from public records.

In some cases, there are disputes about signatures. These may or may not be easily resolved; sometimes the courts have asked for handwriting experts -- a cost most challengers cannot bear and do not take up.

Occasionally, there will be an assertion that the person who "signed" the petition was qualified but out of town at the time and could not have signed it. Hearsay will not suffice in such a case to disqualify the signature.

When all is said and done, most successful challenges remove signatures, but not enough to disqualify the entire petition. In such cases, the petitioner still qualifies for the ballot.

Officials have until end of business Tuesday to rule on the petitions.

CITY COMMITTEE CHALLENGES

Challenges have been entered by two candidates on the PEOPLE FIRST slate (Munroe, Spear) and the RUCD (the regular Democratic organization) by chairman Mapp.

Both sides allege petitions were circulated by persons other than those who swore the circulator's affidavit and that the circulator did not witness all signatures as required.

COUNCIL CHALLENGE

Besides the city committee challenges, Wards 1/4 at-large candidate Terri Briggs-Jones has challenged the petition of her opponenet, former Councilor Bridget Rivers, alleging several signors are not registered voters, are not registered where stated, or listed an incorrect address. She is asking for the entire petition to be invalidated.

Once determinations are made as to the challenges, those which pass muster move on to the ballot selection process.

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  -- Dan Damon [follow]

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