A candidate for Brookfield village trustee who was tossed off the ballot Friday afternoon will appeal that ruling in Cook County Circuit Court.


Josh Jones says he will fight his removal from the ballot by an electoral board comprising Village President Michael Garvey and Trustee Michael Towner. A third member of that board, Village Clerk Brigid Weber, was absent from the three-hour hearing on Jan. 7 at village hall.


“We have decided that my case does, in fact, warrant being taken to the circuit court to have an unbiased judge rule on this matter,” Jones said in a statement e-mailed to the Landmark on Monday night. “We have a significant amount of evidence, which includes uncontested sworn affidavits from the petition circulators and myself, that we feel was overlooked by the hearing board.”


The appeal will be filed in court on Thursday, Jones said.


Jones was the only independent candidate removed from the ballot on Friday. Two other cases remain unresolved, and the propects for those look grim as well.


The electoral board delayed decisions on the fates of independent candidates Frank Torres and Daniel Gribben, whose nominating petitions, like Jones’, were challenged by Brookfield resident Carla Close, who has ties to the PEP Party.


This week the Cook County clerk is expected to perform signature checks on both petitions to verify various signatures being challenged by Close. The exercise will be particularly crucial for Gribben, who submitted barely enough signatures to be placed on the ballot. If the clerk finds just a handful of invalid signatures, Gribben will be knocked off the ballot.


At Friday’s hearing, Gribben said he won’t contest any findings by the Cook County Clerk, though he fell short of withdrawing from the race.


Torres can be knocked off the ballot if about 25 signatures are found to be invalid on his petition sheets. But even if he survives the signature check, he faces serious questions about his filing, including the charge that he had several petition sheets notarized prior to obtaining signatures.


As of Tuesday, a date had not been set for the signature check. The electoral board won’t reconvene until that check is completed.

For a full report, see the Jan. 12 edition of the Landmark.