Judge to rule Friday on Joliet Township ballot dispute

Cesar Guerrero will find out Friday if a Will County judge will put him on the ballot for Joliet Township supervisor after his attorneys argued that the state’s attorney’s office is trying to keep him off.

Guerrero’s attorney Burton Odelson at one point during the hearing on Thursday called arguments from an assistant state’s attorney “offensive” and contended that Guerrero paid off $6,550 in overdue fines in time to justify a spot on the April 1 ballot.

“It’s really odd that the people of the county of Will are arguing so hard to keep a candidate off the ballot,” Odelson said, referring to the state’s attorney’s office role as attorney for the public.

Assistant State’s Attorney Scott Pyles put Guerrero on the witness stand while showing that the candidate was repeatedly notified that he could not run for public office until paying off state-imposed fines for campaign reporting violations.

“We just want to see the election code upheld, and so does the county clerk,” Pyles told the judge. “That’s our only interest here.”

Will County Judge Victoria Breslan heard the two attorneys give their arguments for what state election law requires, and said she will review the law before making a decision Friday morning.

Her decision will likely determine whether Will County Clerk Annette Parker puts Guerrero, a current member of the Joliet City Council, on the ballot as the Democratic candidate for supervisor.

Parker announced on Feb. 4 that Guerrero and three other Will County candidates would not be on the ballot because they were on a forfeiture list issued by the Illinois State Board of Elections. The list named candidates barred from the ballot because they had not paid fines levied for not complying with state election law.

Pyles put Guerrero on the witness stand to show that he had been sent letters from the State Board of Elections as recently as October and as far back as 2022 warning that he would be barred from the ballot until he paid the fines for violations of the state election law.

Pyles argued that Guerrero had until Jan. 31, according to state law, to resolve the matter with the county clerk’s office and did not.

Odelson contended that Guerrero met deadlines set by state law when he paid off the fines on Jan. 29 and was nominated by Joliet Township Democrats for a second time on Feb. 4 after being notified of the vacant ballot position.