The Cook County Clerk is required pursuant to 10 ILCS 5/10 – 8 to determine that all petitions to submit public questions to a referendum, and candidate certificates of nomination and nomination papers, are filed pursuant to the requirements of the Election Code, and are in apparent conformity with the requirements of Election law. In order to fulfill these statutory duties, the Cook County Clerk as to all referenda petitions and candidate certificates of nomination and nomination papers filed with the office, will make a review of the documents to determine if they are in apparent conformity with requirements of Election law, Haymore v Orr, 385 Ill App 3d 915 (First District 2008).
In order to discharge this legal duty, the Cook County Clerk’s Office will review referenda petitions, and candidate nomination papers, for apparent conformity, including the following aspects of the filings:
- Were the documents filed within the time required by law?
- Do the documents contain a petition sheet or sheets containing signatures of purportedly qualified electors?
A. If so, do the petition sheets contain a sufficient number of lines bearing signatures and residence addresses of purportedly qualified electors to meet the legally required number of signatures?
- Does the bottom of each petition sheet contain a circulator’s oath signed by the person circulating setting forth the circulator’s qualifications, that they circulated the petition, and that the signatures were signed in their presence?
A. If so, is the circulator’s oath notarized?
- Are the petition sheets originals and not photocopies or duplicates?
- Are the petition sheets securely bound and numbered?
- Do the nomination papers of a Candidate include a timely filed Statement of Candidacy?
A. If so, is the Statement of Candidacy signed by the candidate?
B. If so, is the statement of Candidacy notarized?
- Do the Candidate’s nomination papers contain a timely filed Statement of Economic Interest receipt if required by law?