MOLINE, Illinois -- Mayoral candidates Stephanie Acri and Bob Vogelbaugh and aldermanic candidates Sonia Berg and John Zelnio were being challenged over not numbering their election petitions.
After a three-hour hearing earlier in the week the Moline Electoral Board decided that all four candidates would be pulled from the ballot.
At Tuesday's meeting, attorneys appealed to the three-person electoral board not to throw four candidates off the ballot over a "technicality."
At the decision on Thursday, the three board members each spoke individually about their findings. Two members decided that they wanted to closely follow the electoral board election code. The third member said that he found that the "lack of numbering" was not harmful to the process or the other candidates.
But the majority decision was to approve Mayor Scott Raes' initial objection.
After the decision was announced, one resident said to the board "I think your decision was petty... and ridiculous." He looked at Acri and Vogelbaugh and encouraged them to launch a campaign to be write-in candidates.