Edgar County Watchdogs
Edgar County Watchdogs
During public comments at the March 7, 2023, Rantoul village board study session, Rantoul resident and sore loser (as determined by the Courts) of a failed referendum attempt, Terry Workman, blamed the Edgar County Watchdogs (instead of himself) for the legal costs the village has incurred during the objection to the petition to abandon the method of electing trustees by district. See the video (HERE) – Workman’s comments start at around the 4:22 mark.
The reality is that Workman, who prematurely submitted petition sheets for a referendum, along with the Rantoul Electoral Board, share responsibility for the legal costs to the village. Had the unlawfully premature petitions not been submitted, there would have been no legal expenses. Had the Electoral Board ruled properly, there would have been no legal expenses.
The previous method of electing village trustees at-large found that Rantoul had all but one trustee living in the northern portion of the village, leaving the rest of the village without effective representation, according to the original signatories of the 2018 referendum to elect trustees by district.
With that said, it is simply a cost of doing business. People have a right to submit petitions for elections, and people also have a right to object to petitions they believe are not proper. Opponents to the referenda objected and the Champaign County Circuit Court agreed with the objections, overturning the electoral board’s decision.
Advantages of single-member districts as mentioned by the ACE Project:
- provide voters with strong constituency representation because each voter has a single, easily identifiable, district representative;
- encourage constituency service by providing voters with an easily identifiable ‘ombudsman’;
- maximize accountability because a single representative can be held responsible and can be re-elected or defeated in the next election;
- ensure geographic representation
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