On the Nov. 2 objection deadline, Mayor Brandon Johnson’s nominating petitions were officially challenged, so he now faces a hearing before the Chicago Board of Elections on whether he stays on the February ballot.
NBC 5’s Mary Ann Ahern reports Johnson would be the first incumbent Chicago mayor to face a ballot challenge. The challenge was filed Monday, Nov. 2 — the deadline for objections — and the Electoral Board hears challenges before the ballot is certified on December 17.
The challenge follows NBC 5’s earlier reporting that nearly 100 of Johnson’s petition pages were photocopies — Chicago law requires original signatures — including five pages from City Treasurer Melissa Conyears-Ervin. Johnson’s campaign has said he has enough valid signatures to survive.
The objector was later named as fellow mayoral candidate Dr. Willie Wilson’s campaign, whose review estimated only about 5,000 valid signatures against the 12,500 required.
Ballot access is the first test of any campaign’s competence. A mayor who filed about 33,000 signatures — too late, notably, for the first-day ballot-position lottery — now has to defend the validity of those signatures in a hearing before he can even run.
Share this story.