Objections and County Electoral Boards

[UPDATE - Champaign County Clerk Gordy Hulten has told me that the July 26th hearing is open to the public. Normal Courthouse security procedures apply (i.e. no phones or laptops). I don't have a specific time yet, but will update later.]

If you follow your County Clerk's twitter feed, you may have noticed that an objection was filed against Cathy Emanuel, a recent independent candidate filing in the race for County Board District 4:

So, what's going on, and what exactly is an Electoral Board? Well, when people fill out and submit an objection (in triplicate!) to the election authority that oversees a particular election, the appropriate electoral board is the one that considers it. In general: the statewide candidate objections will be heard by the State Officers Electoral Board, county candidate objections will be heard by the County Officers Electoral Board, municipal candidates will be heard by the municipal electoral board, with some rules to cover the oddball edges and special circumstances (all laid out here in legalese in the IL Compiled Statutes).

So at the County level here, that'd be the County Clerk, the County State's Attorney, and the County Circuit Clerk, with the County Clerk chair. Each can designate an assistant to sit on the board in their place. And what, you may ask, happens if the objection is to themselves as a candidate or some such conflict? The law says the County Treasurer or the County Sheriff will sit in depending on the situation/eligibility.

The decisions aren't arbitrary and appear to be guided by law and precedent and subject to judicial review. In fact, if you do a word search through the State of Illinois Candidate's Guide, you'll find numerous references to precedent from Electoral Board rulings.

I'll be updating with further information on whether such hearings are open to the public and if so, how to attend. I'm also looking to see if the records of such hearings are available as well.

Disclaimer: I'm not a lawyer, and this is just my best understanding as a layman. I'll update with corrections and additional information as needed.