Lake in the Hills candidate for village president tossed from ballot

A candidate for village president in Lake in the Hills was tossed from the ballot Friday.

Abhishek (Jay) Gulati filed to run against incumbent Village President Ray Bogdanowski, who is seeking a second term.

Bogdanowski was elected village president in 2021 and was unopposed in that campaign. With Gulati’s candidacy being rejected, Bogdanowski is poised to stand for another election without opposition.

Lake in the Hills resident Maureen Huff filed an objection to Gulati’s candidacy this week. Huff had challenged several things in Gulati’s nominating papers, including the lack of an election date on the statement of candidacy, incorrect or missing election dates on most petition forms and the description of office sought written as “president” and not “village president.” The electoral board upheld the objections relating to the dates but not the president.

The biggest issue raised in the challenge, however, was how many valid signatures Gulati obtained. Some of the signatures were from residents outside Lake in the Hills, including Algonquin and Cary. Several other signatures were challenged on the grounds that they did not belong to registered voters or came from addresses that don’t exist in Lake in the Hills.

Gulati collected 103 signatures, a little more than the 95 required. Officials said the number came to be 95 because in the April 2023 election, there were 1,551 votes and 332 under votes for a total of 1,883 voters in the election; 5% of that number is 95.

In the end, the electoral board rejected 14 signatures, leaving Gulati with 89 valid signatures and six short of what he needed to stay on the ballot.

The electoral board ruled on seven different objections and upheld five of them. The ones it upheld included his name being listed differently on most of the petitions than on the statement of candidacy, and an incorrect or incomplete address in some of the nominating petitions, in addition to the date and signature objections. The board disagreed with two of the objections, the “president” candidacy and that Gulati didn’t list the state he lives in on a petition page.

The electoral board comprised Clerk Shannon DuBeau and Trustees Stephen Harlfinger and Bill Huckins. All of them are on the ballot in the April 1 local election.

Gulati described the issues with his nominating documents as an honest mistake and said nothing was misleading. He asked whether he could have the opportunity to rectify it, but officials noted that under the election code, candidates cannot amend their paperwork once it’s submitted.

During a short deliberation, the board noted the multiple errors and inconsistencies in Gulati’s paperwork.

Harlfinger said there were “way too many inconsistencies” with information such as dates, names and addresses, and that “pretty much almost every sheet has some sort of an error.”

Huff said she’d called village hall to see if anyone was running for village president and asked for the candidates’ petitions. She said she didn’t see anything in Bogdanowski’s but noticed the Cary and Algonquin signatures in Gulati’s. She said she reached out to Eric Hendricks, a Lake in the Hills resident and McHenry County Board member. Hendricks is an attorney and represented Huff in the hearing.

Huff said she supports Bogdanowski.

Gulati said he put his name in the hat for village president to stand up for the community. Some of the issues he mentioned include taxes and school district boundaries. Gulati had previously served on the McHenry County Board of Health.

After the hearing, Gulati said it was a fair process. When asked whether he would appeal, he said he would have to speak with his attorney.