Danville's Ward 5 has write-in alderman candidate for April election

Feb. 4—DANVILLE — Danville Ward 5 alderman candidate Jakob Dazey, whose name the Danville Election Commission ruled could not be on the April 4 election ballot, has filed to be a write-in candidate.

Danville Election Commission Director Sandy Delhaye said Dazey was the only one who filed by Thursday's deadline to be a write-in candidate on the city ballot.

For the upcoming Ward 5 Danville City Council alderman election, Alderwoman Eve Ludwig had filed an objection challenging her opponent, Dazey, for not having enough registered voter signatures on Dazey's election petitions.

The Danville Election Commissioners reviewed the objection in December and found the petition didn't have enough valid signatures for Dazey to be a candidate on the ballot.

Some signatures were of voters who would be in Dazey's ward with the new city ward map, but now those voters are in a different ward.

The Danville City Council approved a new redistricted ward map in November.

The Danville Election Commission also stated in November that it was made aware that the city of Danville's passage of a redistricting map may have caused some confusion among candidates and voters regarding the 2023 City of Danville municipal election.

Pursuant to statutory guidelines, the new districts will not be in effect for the upcoming 2023 municipal election.

The Danville City Council next week will act on setting the effective date of the new city ward boundary changes for April 5, 2023.

The updated wards will take effect for the 2025 municipal election and subsequent elections.

Delhaye said the commission received guidance on the matter from their attorney and Vermilion County Presiding Judge Thomas M. O'Shaughnessy.

With the ward redistricting changes, 3,079 Danville residents are changing wards to make the seven wards more equal. The city's population loss caused the redistricting.