From the Danville News-Gazette:

Danville mayoral candidate plans to refile to fix paperwork
By Noelle McGee

Friday, December 15, 2006 8:10 AM CST

DANVILLE – A Danville mayoral candidate plans to start the election-filing process over again to ensure she is not disqualified due to a technicality.

Karen Jones-McKissack said she picked up a new election packet from the Danville Board of Election Commissioners' office on Thursday. She said that starting Thursday evening, she and scores of supporters would spread out over town to collect signatures for her petitions.

"I don't feel comfortable with the way things are now," said Jones-McKissack, of 50 Bismark St. "We're going to do a power blitz this weekend. I plan to turn everything in again on Monday morning. ... Every T will be crossed, and I will have a bona fide person there to witness what goes on."

On Dec. 11, both Jones-McKissack and Mayor Scott Eisenhauer filed petitions and other necessary documents to run for Danville's top job in the 2007 consolidated election. The mayor and treasurer's offices and seven aldermanic seats – one in each ward – will be open.

But while stamping and receiving Jones-McKissack's papers, election commission Director Barbara Dreher noticed the candidate did not write in the office she is seeking on the forms and pointed out the error. When Jones-McKissack reached for the papers to fill in the information, Dreher told her they could not be altered once they were turned in.

Earlier this week, Dreher said she is not obligated to inform candidates that they're missing any information on the forms.

Once the papers are on file, Dreher said, they're open to public inspection. Anyone has until Dec. 26 to file an objection to someone's candidacy.

An Illinois State Board of Elections official said someone could object to Jones-McKissack's candidacy because of the mistake.

"People have objected to smaller things than that," said Steve Sturm, the state board's attorney.

Jones-McKissack picked up her original election packet on Sept. 19. She's upset that at that time, no one from the local election commission office went through the packet with her, ensuring that the forms would be filled out correctly.

She's also upset that election officials did not glance over the papers before she officially submitted them to make sure they were complete.

"It's a courtesy," said Jones-McKissack, an academic adviser at Danville Area Community College. "When a student wants information on applying to a school, we give them the packet and show them how to fill out the application. They come to us after they fill out the application, and we make sure all the information is right."

Jones-McKissack, who is also a Vermilion County Board member, said she spent a lot of time collecting 418 signatures. "Everyone knew what office I was running for," she said.

While she does not know whether anyone is planning to file an objection, she decided to start the entire process over as a precaution. "I don't want to give them any excuse to disqualify me from this race," she said. "I feel like my name has been drug down because of this. This will stop the questions and end the scrutiny."