General Assembly Makes School District Electoral Boards a Thing of the Past
Aug 15, 2013
Share to:
Public Act 98-0115, signed into law July 29, 2013, has eliminated school district electoral boards and removed the election functions of school district board secretaries.
Section 9-10 of the School Code, 105 ILCS 5/9-10, previously provided that nominating papers for candidates seeking election to a board of education were required to be filed with the secretary of the board of education, and Section 10-8 of the Election Code, 10 ILCS 5/10-8, provided that objections to nominating papers were also to be filed with the board secretary. Now, nominating papers for board of education candidates and objections to nominating papers are required to be filed with the county clerk or the county board of election commissioners, as the case may be depending on the county.
Prior to Public Act 98-0115, when objections were filed to the nominating papers of candidates for board of education, an education officers electoral board (consisting of the chairman and secretary of the school board and the school board member with the longest term of continuous service) was formed to hear the objections. Now, electoral boards will no longer exist for school districts. Instead, objections to the nominating papers of board of education candidates after being filed with the county will be heard by the county officers electoral board. The county officers electoral board consists of the county clerk, the state’s attorney and the clerk of the circuit court, or the persons designated by those officials. In counties that have a board of election commissioners, the board of election commissioners sits as the county officers electoral board when objections are received. If a school district is located in two or more counties, it is the location of the principal office of the school district that determines which county electoral board hears the objections to nominating papers of candidates running for school board in the district.
This Law Alert was prepared by M. Neal Smith, an associate in the firm’s Mokena office.
