Mt. Vernon Register-News

Local

April 30, 2009

Villani election lawsuit to proceed

By TESA CULLI

tesa.culli@register-news.com

MT. VERNON — The lawsuit brought by Nicole Villani challenging the Nov. 4, 2008 election results in the Jefferson County State’s Attorney race and alleging voter fraud will move forward after a motion to dismiss the lawsuit was denied.

Villani, who was a candidate for Jefferson County State’s Attorney, filed the election contest petition asking for a full and complete recount of all ballots and votes that were cast in the Nov. 4 election after a discovery recount allegedly showed marked ballots and individual voters who were allegedly ineligible to vote. According to official election results, Villani lost the race by 69 votes. Named in the lawsuit are Jefferson County State’s Attorney Jeff Bradley and Jefferson County Clerk Connie Simmons.

Last month local attorney Jim Hanson, who is representing Simmons, argued for dismissing Villani’s lawsuit on the grounds the complaint as written doesn’t follow the Illinois Code of Civil Procedures.

However, Judge Mark L. Shaner ordered the case to go forward at this time. In his decision, Shaner noted case law which states that, “... while the pleadings in contest proceedings are not required to comply with strict technical rules applicable in civil actions there should be such strictness as will prevent the setting aside of the acts of sworn officials without adequate and well defined cause.”

“The court finds these objections do not require striking or dismissing in the present case,” Shaner wrote. “The court believes the complained of paragraphs and allegations are not so convoluted as to make answering them unreasonable difficult.”

Shaner did order the terms “and other provisions” and “no less than” used in Villani’s allegations should be stricken.

“There is no reason that Petitioner shouldn’t know which provisions of the election code she believes were violated and no reason respondents should be required to speculate,” Shaner stated. “... use of the term ‘no less than’ in several paragraphs and with several numbers is ambiguous. It is not clear to the court if petitioner is alleging ‘at least’ or is emphasizing the actual number.”

According to court information, depositions of election judges in Mt. Vernon 12 precinct will be held next week. In three weeks, the court is expected to set a date to hear arguments in Bradley’s motion for summary judgment in the case.

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