Less than 24 hours before the election booths were set to open, Lake County Board District 16 candidate Juan Beto Ruiz was once again off the ballot, another turn in a case that has fluctuated back and forth for weeks.
According to Illinois Appellate Court Second District documents shared by Lake County Clerk Anthony Vega, the objection to Ruiz’s campaign- centering around a missing surname on his nominating petitions — has been sustained, and the judgment by the Lake County Electoral Board to allow Ruiz to remain on the ballot has been reversed.
The decision is far too late to physically remove Ruiz from the ballot, with tens of thousands of ballots already sent out and returned, and voting to begin Tuesday morning, but based on a previous decision by Lake County’s 19th Judicial Circuit Court, signs can be placed at polling sites notifying voters that Ruiz has been struck from the ballot and that any votes cast for him will not be counted.
Vega previously said the Clerk’s Office will comply with whatever ruling is made. At this point, that means any votes that have been cast for Ruiz will not be certified, and incumbent Campos will take the Democratic primary.
Attempts to reach Ruiz for comment on Monday afternoon were unsuccessful, and whether he plans to take the case higher to the Illinois Supreme Court is not clear.
The decision marks yet another reversal in a race that has become one of the more unusual locally in this election cycle. Several residents, including one connected to incumbent Campos, had filed an objection to Ruiz’s nomination papers because they did not include his maternal surname, “Reynoso.”
Ruiz, who was born in Mexico, argued that his naturalization paperwork, along with other documents, did not include his surname. The challengers argued that the full name allows voters to look up a candidate’s voting records, debts owed to political groups, criminal records, civil cases, and bankruptcy.
Neither incumbent 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.
The county’s electoral board had heard arguments in November, ultimately voting 2-1 to allow him to remain on the ballot. That decision was overturned by the Lake County 19th Judicial Circuit Court earlier this month, and then last week an order from the Circuit Court striking Ruiz from the ballot was stayed until a decision could be made by the higher Appellate Court.
