Eligibility question raised about Bull Valley Village Board challenger in Tuesday’s local election

A question has been raised about whether a candidate for Bull Valley Village Board in Tuesday’s municipal election is eligible to serve.

Joel Eriksen – who is on the ballot along with three incumbents for three available seats – told the crowd at a recent candidates forum that he moved into the village five months ago, a statement he later confirmed to the Northwest Herald.

Illinois law dictates that to be eligible to serve in an elective municipal office, a person must have resided in that municipality for at least a year preceding the election.

Eriksen grew up in Bull Valley and said his father was involved in the 1977 incorporation of the community, known for its open spaces and low density. More recently, Eriksen had been living in Crystal Lake but said he inherited his parents’ property, moved back to Bull Valley and about five months ago “changed my driver’s license to be a resident.”

The three incumbents running to retain their village trustee seats are Mark Newton, Edgar Ellinghausen and Steve Thomas.

Eriksen said “I don’t know” when asked whether he met the residency requirement. He said took the opportunity to run for the board, but he acknowledged that as a first-time candidate, he’s still learning the ropes.

Newton noted that the residency mandate is spelled out in candidate filing papers, and candidates are required to attest that they meet the criteria. He also called Eriksen “extremely uninformed and uninvolved” in the community, and said he had never seen Eriksen at a Village Board meeting.

McHenry County Clerk Joe Tirio, who oversees elections in the county, said that addressing Eriksen’s eligibility falls to the municipality, adding that he only recently learned there may be an issue.

Candidate eligibility “is not for us to decide. That is for the [municipality] to figure out,” Tirio said.

He is telling candidates to contact the village attorney for direction.

If Eriksen is elected, “I would imagine they would not seat him,” Tirio said.

Eriksen said he didn’t set out to challenge any of the incumbents but initially believed there were four seats available on the Village Board. With four candidates in the race, that would give them each a seat without a contested race.

A candidates list posted on the McHenry County clerk’s website erroneously stated there were four seats up this cycle, rather than three, for Bull Valley Village Board.

Tirio said the error did not appear on the actual ballot, which instructs those voting for Bull Valley trustee to “vote for three.”

“Unfortunately … there was confusion,” including from Bull Valley officials, on how many seats were up this cycle, Tirio said.

”The list was updated pretty quickly once things were settled. The ballots are fine," he said.

Tirio said most villages have seven trustees, with three elected in one odd-year election cycle and four the next. Bull Valley has six trustees, with three elected every other year.

The village provided a document that gave the names of four candidates who had turned in candidate packets but indicated there were three terms for three years each up for election.

His office responded with, “Don’t you mean four-year terms, vote for four?” Tirio said. “They signed off on that from us – four years, four slots.”

While proofing the ballots, that error was discovered and fixed, both on the ballots and on the candidates list posted online, Tirio said.