Four people were elected to seats on the Brookfield Public Library Board of Trustees on April 5. But for another week or so, according to the Cook County Clerk’s Office, we’ll only know who two of them are.
This much is certain: On Election Day, voters selected incumbent library board President Dianne Duner and newcomer Jennifer Mack Perry to represent them. Perry, whose husband Art was elected to the Riverside District 96 school board, racked up 2,580 votes to Duner’s 2,491.
As the only two candidates who submitted nominating petitions, Perry and Duner were the only choices on the ballot, despite the fact that four seats were up for election.
However, three candidates – Josh Jones, Linda Stevanovich and Frank Torres – officially filed to run as write-ins in the race. Toward the end of the campaign, Stevanovich, who is a VIP Party member and former village trustee, teamed up with Torres.
Both Torres and Jones initially filed papers to run for village trustee but were removed from the ballot after a challenge lodged by an ally of the PEP Party. Instead of fighting an uphill battle as write-ins for village trustee, they chose to enter the library board race, which had two uncontested seats up for election.
But the candidates are going to have to wait a little longer to find out if that strategy worked.
According to the Cook County Clerk, there were 963 write-in votes in the Brookfield library board race. However, just who won those votes won’t be known until the results are certified by the county clerk’s office in another week or so.
– Bob Uphues
