Judge knocks McDaniel off Naperville council ballot but Stephens to remain a mayoral candidate
Naperville City Council candidate Derek McDaniel was bumped from the ballot in the upcoming election but mayoral candidate Tiffany Stephens’ name will remain, a DuPage judge ruled Friday.
Judge Craig Belford directed the DuPage County Clerk’s Office to file an amended ballot certification removing McDaniel from the council race in the April 4 consolidated election.
The ruling came after Arian Ahmadpour, of Naperville, filed a lawsuit seeking to reverse the municipal electoral board’s decisions that allowed the two candidates to remain on the ballot.
The board consisting of Naperville Mayor Steve Chirico, Councilman Paul Hinterlong and City Clerk Pam Gallahue voted 2-1 to reject Ahmadpour’s challenges the two candidacies.
In McDaniel’s case, he charged that McDaniel failed to properly number his nominating petition sheets as required by state law. In Stephens’, he said she was not qualified to run because she has not lived in Naperville for a year, citing her use of an Aurora address to vote and file taxes prior to her house purchase in July.
In the McDaniel ruling, Belford said Illinois election code in nonpartisan races specifies how petitions need to be submitted.
One requirement, the judge said, is that “such sheets, before being presented to the electoral board or filed with the proper officer of the electoral district or division of the state or municipality, as the case may be, shall be neatly fastened together in book form, by placing the sheets in a pile and fastening them together at one edge in a secure and suitable manner, and the sheets shall then be numbered consecutively.”
Belford said it was undisputed that the candidate failed to number his pages and therefore no signature should have been accepted unless all the requirements were met.
McDaniel’s attorney Keri-Lyn Krafthefer said her client will not appeal the decision.
In the Stephens case, Belford said the challenger failed to prove Stephens wasn’t a Naperville resident for a full year prior to this year’s election.
Under dispute are the three months between April 4, 2022, and June 30, 2022, the latter being the date she closed on the purchase of a town house on Anna Marie Lane on the city’s south side.
Ahmadpour’s attorney Ross Secler argued that Stephens, founder of Naperville-based nonprofit Kids Teen Rider, did not live in the city prior to June 30 based on an Aurora address she used to vote and file income taxes dating back to 2018.
Belford cited Stephens’ testimony before the election board when she said she was living at her 1240 Iroquois Ave. office in Naperville and with friends and family in the city.
Because the board determined her testimony was credible, Belford said he reaffirmed the board’s ruling given that evidence.
Stephens could not be reached for comment.
