GENEVA – The Geneva Township Electoral Board voted Thursday to remove clerk candidate Geoffrey M. Carreiro from the April 9 consolidated election ballot.
Carreiro would have been the only clerk candidate on the ballot. Clerk Barbara Olson did not file for re-election.
The three-member board met at the township office and determined Carreiro did not have enough valid signatures on his nominating petitions to stay on the ballot.
For nearly two hours, the board considered all 19 objections to Carreiro’s nominating petitions. Ultimately, the board denied nine, but board members sustained 10 objections to signers who were not registered to vote, did not live in Geneva Township or whose signatures did not come close to the signatures on file with the county clerk’s voter registration records.
Carreiro collected 162 signatures. The board determined 10 were not valid, leaving him 152, four short of the required 156 to be on the ballot.
Carreiro vowed to file as a write-in candidate.
“At the end of the day, I find that it’s unfortunate that they come after people that want to get involved and pursue things and help out their own community,” said Carreiro, 25. “I’m a young person … and I just feel that a lot more people should be giving back, and that’s why I’m getting involved, to bring out the younger crowd.”
Carreiro said the challenge in a write-in candidacy is having people spell his name right.
Incumbent Trustee Robert Kovacs, who filed the objection to Carreiro’s nominating petitions, said he appreciated the board’s diligence and the outcome of its deliberations.
“I am satisfied,” Kovacs said. “I had the opportunity to object.”
Kovacs said he did not know Carreiro and wanted him off the ballot so the trustees could interview potential clerk candidates and “select someone who will do a good job.”
“I did not even come up with this idea until I saw he was the only one running,” Kovacs said. “If you are the only one running for [the office], you got the job.”
The electoral board was made up of Supervisor Patrick Jaeger, Olson and attorney Timothy O’Neil. The other member of the electoral board, Trustee Richard Sharp, had a conflict of interest because he had circulated petitions for Carreiro. O’Neil was appointed in his stead.
Jaeger said he would get a certified copy of the exact number of required signatures from the county clerk today before signing the order that removes Carreiro from the ballot.
