Link to hearing video:   https://edgarcountywatchdogs.com/2019/01/atlanta-electoral-board-removed-2-candidates-from-ballot/

 

By:  Diane Benjamin

The hearing that wasn’t legal last week was held today.  This time an agenda was available and all parties that needed to be there were there.

Several citizens expressed sympathies to Billie Cheek and apologized if their comments when she wasn’t present at the last meeting offended her.  They assured her they were meant in the best interests of the law, not against her personally.  The Edgar County Watchdogs filmed the meeting, if they post the video I will link to it.

The petitions for Dale Colaw and Linda Evans were ruled invalid.  Both will not appear on the ballot.  Both filed their Statements of Economic Interest with the wrong office – they should have been filed with the County Clerk and a receipt filed with the petitions.

In addition, the Hearing Board ruled Dale Colaw should not have been allowed to file on a Sunday at 4:00.  The law clearly states that filing can only occur when the Clerk’s office is open for at least 7 hours and on a business day.

Who allowed him to file on a Sunday needs to be investigated and probably will be.

Tomorrow is the court date to hear one more challenge to the library board and officially file the hearing results from last week.  One person hadn’t been served, so the objection wasn’t heard.  The hearing will take place in Lincoln.  Next Tuesday, before the Atlanta City Council meeting, the documents officially removing Colaw and Evans will be filed.

The citizens of Atlanta were forced to pay the lawyer to attend again today.  The whole hearing took just over half an hour, it could have easily been done last week and saved a lot of time and expense.  It least the law was followed.