Sign up for Chalkbeat Chicago’s free daily newsletter to keep up with the latest news on Chicago Public Schools.As Chicago shifts to a fully-elected school board, voters along the south lakefront will see only one candidate on their ballot after the city’s Board of Elections removed the only challenger. District 10a candidate Tameka Walton said she would still mount a write-in campaign against incumbent Che ‘Rhymefest’ Smith. After some of Walton’s signatures were ruled ineligible, she fell below the 500-signature requirement, the Chicago Board of Election Commissioners ruled Tuesday. “It does a disservice to the citizens of Chicago, the folks in my district, to not have my name appear on the ballot,” Walton said.Walton said running as a write-in candidate is different from having her name on the ballot, but she’s continuing her campaign in her district.“Just because your name doesn’t appear on the ballot doesn’t mean that it stops there for you,” Walton said.Of the 51 candidates who filed petitions in May for the 21 school board seats up for election in November, 28 faced objections alleging improper or fraudulent signatures, among other issues. Candidates can be removed from the ballot if enough of their signatures are invalidated.The board ruled Tuesday on cases involving 11 school board candidates. Two candidates for school board president, Hilario Dominguez and Victor P. Henderson, were deemed to have enough valid signatures and will join Jessica Biggs, Jennifer Custer, and Sendhil Revuluri in the citywide race.Eight other candidates also survived challenges and are set to be on the Nov. 3 ballot. They are: Brenda Lee Anderson (6a), Michael Neal (6b), Norma Rios-Sierra (3a), Ed Bannon (1a), Jason Dónes (3b), Anusha Thotakura (6a), Hector Morales (2a), and Yesenia Lopez (7b). These candidates join seven other candidates who previously overcame their challenges. However, like Walton, five other candidates fell below the signature threshold and were dropped from the ballot.Five candidates — Claudia Peralta, Karen Zaccor, Kernetha Jones, Michilla Blaise, and Connie Anderson — are still awaiting decisions. Zaccor said in an interview that she believes she will remain above the signature threshold to appear on the ballot after the dual-circulator challenge was dropped.“Collecting signatures was a good reminder of why we fought for an elected school board in the first place, ” Dominguez said.The meeting also covered two appeals of decisions from earlier preliminary hearings.Attorneys Stephen Fine and Ed Mullen, who worked together on many cases against candidates supported by the Chicago Teachers Union, debated each other before the electoral board over whether a challenge against Brenda Lee Anderson should invalidate her candidacy. Anderson said that Anusha Thotakura, a candidate in District 6a, is behind the challenge. Mullen said Anderson was ineligible to appear on the ballot because she had not updated her address before filing her statement of candidacy. He cited a past case involving a candidate who was not a registered voter at the address listed on her filing documents. Fine argued that Anderson’s change of address did not invalidate her voter registration.“[Anderson] lived in 6a, resided in 6a, and never left 6a,” Fine said. General counsel Adam Lasker determined that even though Anderson had changed addresses, she is still a registered voter and is therefore eligible to appear on the ballot. The board voted 3-0 to dismiss the challenge. Anderson will run against Thotakura, who was endorsed by the CTU, and Isaiah White, whose campaign has contributed to some petition challenges.Anderson, who attended the hearing, said the building she moved to was only one block from her previous address. “From my understanding, lots of people told [Thotakura] to drop the challenge, and she refused to,” Anderson said. “And it’s sad because, again, this is supposed to be about kids.”Anderson said the CTU will pay the legal fees she incurred fighting the objection. CTU made that offer to any candidate, whether the union was backing them or not, shortly after petition challenges were made public. The second appeal hearing concerned the spelling of Rios-Sierra’s name on her candidacy and petition forms. The opposing counsel said her candidacy should be invalidated because her name was spelled “Norma Rios-Sierra” on her voter registration but “Norma Rios Sierra” on other official documents.The electoral board voted unanimously to dismiss the challenge.Lasker said the remaining cases would likely be decided at the next electoral board session on Aug. 11.
