In a reversal from last week, District 16 Lake County Board candidate Juan Beto Ruiz is back on the ballot for the upcoming primary, with the final decision on the challenge to his candidacy likely to be made after the election contest.
The political newcomer had been removed from the ballot over issues with his nomination petitions. Challengers argue he failed to include his full legal name, leaving out his maternal surname “Reynoso.”
According to Lake County Clerk Anthony Vega, Ruiz filed an appeal to last week’s order striking him from the ballot with the Second District Appellate Court, as well as an emergency motion to stay enforcement with Lake County’s 19th Judicial Circuit Court until the Appellate Court has made a decision. The motion to stay was granted on Monday, Vega said.
If Friday’s order had gone forward, signs would have been placed at polling sites notifying voters that Ruiz had been struck from the ballot, court documents said, and that any votes cast for Ruiz would not be counted.
Whether there will be another turn in the case before March 17 remains to be seen, although Vega said there was no hearing scheduled as of Monday afternoon. Vega’s office will comply with whatever the ultimate ruling is, he said. Ruiz said he was also not aware of any hearings scheduled as of Monday afternoon.
According to Vega, the Lake County Clerk’s Office has two weeks after election day to count late arriving and provisional ballots. After that, the office has a set amount of time to certify the election results — Vega said certification is currently scheduled for Monday, April 6 at 3 p.m., although April 7 is the official deadline for an election authority to certify.
If Ruiz were to win the primary election on March 17 based on unofficial results, but then the Appellate Court were to rule against him before the April deadline, any votes cast for Ruiz would not be certified — and therefore not counted — and Campos would have the most votes, winning the election.
What happens if that deadline were to pass without a decision is far less certain. Vega said his office will have to work with its legal counsel if it looks like the Appellate Court will issue a decision after the April deadline.
Ruiz said the issue is now bigger than just himself, and is about “clarifying the law around the usage of surnames for the Latino community.” He said his lawyer is speaking with a prominent national Mexican American organization, which had just such concerns.
“We feel it’s discriminatory what’s happening,” Ruiz said.
In a statement, incumbent Esiah Campos said it was “abundantly clear” Ruiz had not followed the law, although he has “every right to appeal.”
“However, he is still not a candidate for Lake County Board for a reason,” Campos said. “He did not follow the law. If I had done the same thing, I too would be rightfully removed from the ballot.”
Original rulings
Last week, the 19th Judicial Circuit Court of Lake County had ordered Ruiz stricken from the ballot, and any votes cast for him were not to be counted.
Ruiz has been campaigning in the Democratic primary in the hopes of unseating Campos, regularly attacking Campos’ attendance record.
In prior statements, Ruiz had criticized the challenge, saying it is, “less about transparency and more about discouraging my candidacy.”
The challenge comes from two Round Lake-area residents, including Travis Haley, a Round Lake Area Public Library Board trustee. According to campaign contribution data, Haley donated $250 to Campos’ campaign in 2023, 2024 and 2025.
In a prior statement, Campos called the striking of Ruiz from the ballot as “exactly what we anticipated.” He failed to follow the “straightforward and transparent rules,” Campos said.
Campos also said the ruling raised “additional questions” about Ruiz’s motives, “especially since he used a different name than what is clearly listed on his voter registration and other legal documents.”
Neither Campos nor court documents mentioned any criminal or civil cases in Ruiz’s record, nor were there explicit claims of Ruiz lying about his voter registration, voting history or other candidate background information.
Last week’s decision overruled an earlier decision by the Lake County Electoral Board, chaired by Vega, which decided in November in a 2-1 vote to allow Ruiz to remain on the ballot, despite the challenge.
According to documents related to the Electoral Board’s decision, the objectors had argued Ruiz had failed to include his complete surname, “Ruiz Reynoso,” on his nominating petitions. Ruiz’s full legal name is Juan Roberto Ruiz Reynoso.
The inclusion of Reynoso, they argued, allows voters to look up a candidate’s voting record, debts owed to political subdivisions, criminal records or civil cases, and bankruptcy.
According to the documents, Ruiz argued he doesn’t often use Reynoso as his surname, pointing to various public and legal identifications, most notably his Application for Naturalization from the Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.
