In Bettis v. Marsaglia, 2014 IL 117050, the Illinois Supreme Court reversed the appellate court’s dismissal of an appeal of a administrative ruling of an electoral board. Interpreting a provision of the Election Code and resolving a split among appellate districts, the supreme court found that a petitioner seeking judicial review of an electoral board’s denial of a request to submit a public question for referendum satisfied the statutory service requirement. The Election Code, 10 ILCS 5/10-10.1(a) (West 2012), provides that a candidate or objector seeking judicial review of an electoral board’s decision must serve a copy of the petition upon the electoral board. The petitioner, Carolyn Bettis, wished to challenge a resolution of the Macoupin, Montgomery, and Sangamon counties’ school district to issue working cash bonds in the amount of $2 million. Bettis petitioned her local election board to place the issue on the ballot for an April 9, 2013 election. When the board sustained the objections of two individuals to Bettis’ request, she sought judicial review and served a petition on all of the members of the electoral board at their homes, but did not separately serve the board itself.
Before considering the statutory jurisdictional question, the supreme court found that two of the three issues raised in the appeal could be considered even though the election date had passed and the questions generally would be considered moot. The public interest exception to the mootness doctrine saved the service issue and a question raised by the objectors in a cross appeal, whether the petition should have been dismissed because Bettis did not name the electoral board as a party to the petition for circuit court review. The court reasoned that questions relating to election law inherently implicate matters of public concern. Moreover, the fact that the same issues had generated conflicting appellate decisions in earlier cases established that the issues likely would recur. The court classified a third issue - whether the petition should have been dismissed because it was not numbered or securely bound – as moot, because it presented only a case specific fact question.
On the merits, the court began its analysis by observing that a court has jurisdiction over election cases only when the legislature confers jurisdiction. A party seeking to invoke such special statutory jurisdiction must strictly adhere to the procedure established by the General Assembly. In this instance, the court determined that section 10-10.1(a) clearly required that the electoral board be served, but did not clearly state how the electoral board had to be served. Ultimately, the court determined that service on the individual board members constituted service on the electoral board; separate service on the entity would be duplicative, in the court’s view. In reaching its decision, the court noted the statutorily defined membership of the board and importance of providing the public with ballot access.
The supreme court also rejected the objectors’ argument that the dismissal should be affirmed based on Bettis’ failure to name the electoral board or its members and failed to attach to the petition a copy of the electoral board’s decision. The court reasoned that the statute did not contain these requirements.
The court reversed the appellate court’s judgment dismissing the appeal, but did not remand the case to the circuit court for consideration of the petition on the merits, as Bettis requested. The only remaining question had been mooted by the passage of the one and only election Bettis had specified in her petition.
Justice Mary Jane Theis dissented. Finding no lack of clarity in the statute, Justice Theis would have affirmed the dismissal of the appeal for lack of jurisdiction, because Bettis failed to serve the electoral board.
Recommended Citation: Karen Kies DeGrand, The Illinois Supreme Court Reinstates an Appeal Dismissed for Lack of Jurisdiction Where a Petitioner Satisfied the Notice Requirement for Invoking Special Statutory Jurisdiction for Judicial Review of an Electoral Board Ruling, The Brief, (January 6, 2015), http://applawyers-thebrief.blogspot.com/2015/01/the-illinois-supreme-court-reinstates.html#more.
