A federal district court judge has halted Tuesday’s controversial election for a seat on the Peoria city council. In his ruling, U.S. District Judge David Campbell honored a request by candidate Dr. Ken Krieger and issued a court order to block the counting of any votes in the Mesquite District race. A special election will be held instead. Krieger is running against Ben Toma and Bridget Binsbacher for the Mesquite council seat. Mail-in ballots have already been sent in. Krieger sued Aug. 7 after two mail-in ballots, printed on white and yellow paper, failed to include his name. A third ballot on purple paper was mailed out and did list his candidacy but the city council voted to count the flawed yellow-and-white ballots anyway.
On Friday, lawyers for Krieger, the city and others, argued for 90 minutes in U.S. District Court on whether going ahead with Tuesday’s election violated his rights and what standard should be applied to determining the answer.
Krieger’s attorney Kory Langhofer argued that the candidate was harmed because he was denied the chance to vote for himself and that the court need only prove that the election was fundamentally unfair because the language on the purple ballot was confusing. Langhofer argued that the only way to ensure a fair election was halt the process and start over.
Full Article: Federal judge halts primary over Peoria ballot issue.