Williams v. Butler
| Decision Date | 30 January 1976 |
| Docket Number | No. 76--10,76--10 |
| Citation | 341 N.E.2d 394,35 Ill.App.3d 532 |
| Parties | W. Dakin WILLIAMS, Petitioner-Appellee-Cross Appellant, v. Douglas L. BUTLER et al., Respondents-Appellants-Cross Appellees. |
| Court | United States Appellate Court of Illinois |
Londrigan & Potter, Thomas F. Londrigan, Michael Levinson, Legal Dept., Springfield, for appellant.
W. Dakin Williams, Collinsville, for appellees.
This proceeding was instituted on December 20, 1975, when Douglas Butler filed objections to the petitions of W. Dakin Williams contending that the petitions were not sufficient for Williams to be a candidate of the Democratic Party in the March 1976 primary election. Williams sought to be a candidate of the Democratic Party for the office of governor. The State Board of Elections, after a hearing, sustained certain of the objections. The consequence of the action of the State Board was to exclude Williams as a candidate.
Upon judicial review, pursuant to the provisions of section 10--10 of the Election Code (Ill.Rev.Stat.1973, ch. 46, 10--10), the circuit court of Sangamon County affirmed in part and reversed in part the order of the State Board of Elections. The effect of the trial court order insofar as it reversed certain action of the State Board was to find that there were sufficient valid signatures on nominating petitions so as to entitle Williams to be a candidate of the Democratic Party for the office of governor. The trial court judgment ordered that the State Board certify Williams' name to the appropriate officials for placement upon the ballot for the election to be held on March 16, 1976. Upon appeal to this court, and upon a motion for stay and an expeditious hearing, this court ordered a stay of the trial court judgment and further entered an order reversing that judgment. The order of this court was entered January 15, 1976. In announcing our order, we indicated an opinion would subsequently be filed. This is that opinion.
The objections originally filed with the State Board contended that the nominating petitions filed by Williams were invalid upon six specified grounds. The State Board disallowed four of these grounds, three having been stricken by the Board and one having been overruled by the Board. The Board, however, did sustain two objections. Those objections alleged:
The substantive effect of the trial court order was to find that objection (c) above set forth should have been sustained only insofar as the objection related to the petitions circulated by one Gordon Haymon, and that in other respects the objections should have been overruled.
As to objection (f), the trial court held as a matter of law that the statutory requirement that the pages of the nominating petition be consecutively numbered was not an appropriate basis for striking all pages and all signatures after page 191 of the Williams' petition. The pages of Williams' petition were numbered 1 through 323, but there is no page 191. We agree with the trial court that such omission does not constitute any basis for striking the remaining pages. The statutory requirement found in section 7--10 of the Election Code (Ill.Rev.Stat.1973, ch. 46, 7--10) that the pages be numbered consecutively cannot be said in any way to relate to preservation of the integrity of the electoral process. Noncompliance with the provision in the failure to insert or number a page is a mere technicality and cannot invalidate a petition. It seems to us irrelevant whether we would conclude that there was at least substantial compliance as in Madison v. Sims, 6 Ill.App.3d 795, 286 N.E.2d 592, or whether we construe the statutory requirement as merely directory and noncompliance is of no legal consequence.
The record before the State Board of Elections as it relates to objection (c) indicates that 9 individuals circulated some 323 pages of the petitions obtaining signatures thereon. Pages containing some 6000 names were circulated by the 3 persons named in paragraph (c) of the objections, I.e., Ron Galbraith, Gordon Haymon and Michael Singer. The objector, Douglas Butler, attempted to contact some of the circulators at the address indicated on the petition. He was unable to contact Michael Singer at his indicated address or Ron Galbraith at the same indicated address. He did find Michael Singer's stepmother at that address. The objector did contact one Jack Skidmore. Skidmore advised him that he had been involved in getting signatures on nominating petitions for Williams. Skidmore had placed an ad in a newspaper seeking persons to circulate petitions. He secured the 3 named persons to circulate the petitions and he paid them a fee for the service. Skidmore periodically met them at a gas station to collect the petitions. At the time he collected the petitions, the petitions had already been signed by the circulators. Skidmore was called as a witness and in his testimony he indicated his general concurrence in the testimony of Butler as related above, and added that when the petitions were collected by him, they were completed in form and he would give them to Williams and he (Williams)
Gordon Haymon called as a witness stated that he circulated petitions on behalf of Williams; that he signed his name to the petitions but not in the presence of a notary public. He signed the petitions and gave them to Skidmore. The substance of his testimony is that he did not sign the acknowledgment before the notary public.
All the petitions signed by the 3 circulators bear the acknowledgment of Joan Tosi as a notary public and for the most part bear a notarization date of October 15, 1975. Galbraith and Singer were not called as witnesses. Section 10--4 of the Code (Ill.Rev.Stat.1973, ch. 46, 10--4) requires that at the bottom of each petition there shall be a statement signed by the circulator certifying that the signatures on that sheet were signed in his presence and that they are genuine and further that the signers were qualified voters of the political division for which the candidate is being nominated. This statutory provision expressly requires that this statement by the circulators 'shall be sworn to before some officer authorized to administer oaths in this State.' The court...
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