Objections to petitions

I thought about going to the McHenry County Elections Office during this past week to pore over the petitions. I suspected I could knock out at least one, but I wasn't willing to mortgage the farm to do it.

Here's a little tidbit that might have knocked almost everyone who filed right out of the box.

On the Statement of Candidacy is the following statement: "I ____ (Name of Candidate) being first duly sworn (or affirmed), say that ..." basically that he is eligible to run for the office. Several conditions are stated. They are not the point I am about to make.

Re-read the beginning of the Statement: "I ____ (Name of Candidate) being first duly sworn (or affirmed), say that ..."

How many of the candidates do you think were "...first duly sworn..." by the Notary Public before they signed their names and the Notary Public signed and sealed the Statement?

I know that one was, because I had the Notary who notarized my Statement first swear me. I felt she thought I was nuts. Nobody does that. They just sign, and then the Notary signs.

Sometimes they don't even sign in front of the Notary, but that's for another day.

So what does it mean, when the Candidate does not say all the things about how legal he is to run for office without being first duly sworn.

It means his Statement of Candidacy is no good, invalid, worthless, not qualified to be filed. But they all got filed, anyway.

What would happen if petitions were objected to on that basis and the Candidate and the Notary had to give sworn testimony about the words said at the time of notarizing the Statement? What if, in fact, the Notary did not first swear the Candidate before he signed. Would each and all tell the truth? What would that mean?

1. It was mean that the Candidate was no longer a candidate.
2. It would mean the Notary would lose his/her commission.

Would they tell the truth? In some parts of McHenry County, people in the law field hardly blink at perjury. "Everybody lies" is heard too often.

To file an objection to a petition, you have to have an attorney (or spend a lot of time at the courthouse or the election board learning how to be your own attorney and file the objection pro se).

Were any objections filed? Today was the last day to file.