Will Madison County Board candidate’s name remain on the ballot?

The initial binder review of Tyler Oberkfell’s petition for the Madison County Board found some signatures may be invalid, but no final decision has been made.

Donald Moore of Troy defeated County Board member Roger Alons in the spring primary and is now the Republican candidate to represent District 2. Moore’s opponent is independent Tyler Oberkfell of Troy, who filed his petition to run in the November election with 273 signatures. A minimum of 232 are required.

Moore filed an objection to Oberkfell’s petition, alleging that 55 of the signatures were from people who were not properly registered. His attorney, James Craney, also alleged that some signatures appear to have common authorship or other problems.

The county clerk’s office has completed its binder review of Oberkfell’s petition, checking the names and addresses against the voter registration rolls. That review tentatively found 16 signatures of people who are registered outside of District 2 and 27 signatures of people who are not registered at all, for a total of 43 that may be invalid, according to County Clerk Debbie Ming-Mendoza.

If all 43 signatures are found to be invalid, Oberkfell would be two signatures short of the minimum required to appear on the ballot.

Both sides now have the weekend to review the results and will make arguments next week on the contested names. Moore also will be able to argue other issues such as common authorship at that time.

“Hopefully they will come together and agree on some of them,” Ming-Mendoza said. “Otherwise it’s up to the board to rule whether (a signature) is valid or invalid.... Even with the stipulation, we will ultimately make the decision.”

In order to sign a petition to place a person on the ballot, the signer must be a registered voter who lives in the affected district. If the signer has moved since the last election, he or she is required to register that new address with the county clerk’s office, even if it is in the same precinct as the old address.

The board consists of chairwoman Ming-Mendoza, Circuit Clerk Mark Von Nida and State’s Attorney Tom Gibbons, advised by assistant state’s attorney John McGuire.

This story was originally published July 15, 2016 at 10:57 AM with the headline "Will Madison County Board candidate’s name remain on the ballot?."