Ken Maurice Removed From 84th District Ballot

The race for the 84th Illinois House district got a little less crowded this week, as Auroran Ken Maurice was removed from the ballot.

According to State Board of Elections records, Aurora resident Winford Woods objected to Maurice’s candidate petitions on Dec. 12. In order to be listed on the ballot, Maurice needed to collect 500 signatures from registered voters within the district. He handed in 994, but Woods objected to 725 of them.

Woods charged that some of Maurice’s collected signatures were not genuine, and some of the signers were not registered at the address given, or lived outside the district, or signed more than once, according to his objection. 

The State Board conducted an investigation, and found that only 475 of Maurice’s signatures were valid. Maurice and his attorney then obtained affidavits for eight of the stricken signatures, and had them reconsidered, but that still put his total at 483 valid signatures, 17 short of the requirement, according to the State Board’s decision, rendered on Tuesday.

Maurice works for the City of Aurora as youth and senior services coordinator. He will still have the opportunity to run for the 84th District seat as an independent, according to state election rules.

The new 84th District covers much of Aurora’s east side, and includes a portion of Montgomery east of Douglas Road. There is no incumbent, and three Democrats (Alex Arroyo, Carole Cheney and Stephanie Kifowit) and one Republican (Pat Fee) are vying for the seat.