Second Kendall County Party candidate removed from April 1 election ballot

Following the Oswego Township Officers Electoral Board voting recently to remove Kendall County Party candidate Jeff Ackley’s name on the April 1 ballot for the office of Oswego Township Highway Commissioner, another Kendall County Party candidate is set to be removed from the ballot.

The name of Kendall County Party candidate Stephen Youhanie, who is running on the April 1 ballot for Oswego Township Clerk against Republican Nathan Brown, will also be taken off the ballot.

“In light of that finding, the township attorney advised that Mr. Youhanie had to be removed from the ballot,” Oswego Township Clerk Ken Holmstrom said in an email.

On Feb. 13, the board voted to remove Ackley from the ballot because the Kendall County Party is not an established political party in the township. In doing so, the board sustained the objections of Oswego Township Highway Commissioner Claude Ainsworth, who is running for a second term after first being elected to the post in 2021.

The question was raised several times during the electoral board meeting on what constitutes an established political party. According to state law, a political party that at the last election polled more than 5% of the entire vote cast within such territorial area or political subdivision is declared to be an established political party.

In its ruling, the electoral board noted that while the Kendall County Party received more than 5% of the vote from Oswego Township precincts in last year’s general election for the office of Kendall County Circuit Clerk, the township was not voting as a unit for the election of officers to serve the township.

Established political parties may nominate candidates to fill vacancies in nomination at a consolidated election when no party candidate was nominated at the consolidated primary election, state statute states.

“There were no Kendall County Party candidates for township offices at the 2021 consolidated election, the last township election,” according to the board’s ruling. “Therefore, the objection alleging the Kendall County Party is not an established party that can fill vacancies is sustained.”

Laura Jacksack, acting as the electoral board chair at the meeting in the absence of Oswego Township Supervisor Joe West, said that clerks and other election authorities have roles that are administrative in nature.

“So any candidate papers and any other documents filed with the clerk are presumed valid unless there’s an objection,” she said. “That’s just how our laws are set up. Anything you hand in to the clerk, aside from something really, really egregious, like if you need 25,000 signatures and you only turned in one signature, a clerk doesn’t have the authority to reject something. In this case, an objection was filed.”

Following the decision, Kendall County Party chairman Todd Milliron told the electoral board members that the group thought it was following all the proper rules and procedures.

“We will take the decision,” he said. “We understand it. You explained it very well. But it is disappointing.”

Ainsworth said his objection to Ackley’s name being on the ballot was “never anything personal.”

“He seems like a good guy,” Ainsworth said.