Champaign County Sheriff’s Candidate Faces Challenge to Nominating Petitions

An independent candidate for Champaign County Sheriff faces a possible roadblock in his effort to get on November's ballot.

Jerommie Smith of Sidney says he'll carefully examine the voter registry and contest a challenge from Stephen Frank. The Fisher resident is objecting to more than 1,000 signatures on Smith's petitions - claiming a number of them aren't from registered voters. Other claims from the former law partner of Champaign County Sheriff Dan Walsh include that the signatures are illegible, voters from outside the county signed the petitions, and that petitions were signed more than once.

Smith, who's from Sidney, says he expected an immediate challenge when filing the petitions, noting Sheriff Walsh hasn't had an election opponent. "I think that anytime you start getting competition, and you throw that out there, and if you can win an election by not having to a campaign, I guess that's what they're trying to do." said Smith. "The question I have is - who checked the voter registry to our petitions? All I know is that he (Frank) filed, and they're claiming an objection to this, and I don't know who checked them, who didn't, and I don't know if it matters or not. But our job is to go through it ourselves to see if their claims are valid or not."

The 3-member Champaign County Electoral Board has scheduled a hearing for Thursday at 1 at the county courthouse to hear Frank's objections. One of that's panel's members, Urbana Circuit Clerk Linda Frank, is the ex-wife of Stephen Frank, and has already said she'll step down for that hearing. Smith calls that an 'admirable' move.