Judge Invalidates Dolton Mayor Recall Referendum Pushed by Village Trustees (Dolton, Illinois) – A Cook County Circuit Court Judge on Wednesday, June 15, invalidated a politically inspired ballot referendum to recall the Mayor of the Village of Dolton, scoring a significant win for democracy at the local level, according to Mayor Tiffany Henyard.
Judge Paul Karkula’s ruling concluded that the recall referendum authorized by the village trustees in December 2021 to be “null and void” and ordered the Cook County Clerk to tally no votes cast on the referendum and ignore the results, which will appear on ballots in Dolton on June 28.
“Judge Karkula understood that the referendum was an unconstitutional power grab by my political opponents on the village board to silence me and nullify the ballots cast by 82% of Dolton residents last April because they disagree with my vision of the future for Dolton,” said Henyard. “Democracy wins.”
Mayor Henyard noted the Board put the legal cart before the horse.
“The Village board placed the legal cart before the horse of trying to recall the mayor without having a mechanism in place while simultaneously attempting to undo by referenda what the voters accomplished at the ballot box,” said Henyard. “Judge Karkula saw through the trustees’ unworkable, unconstitutional legal scheme.”
Judge Invalidates Dolton Mayor Recall Referendum Pushed by Village Trustees
