Farid Malik Shabazz cannot run for the Naperville City Council in April because his nominating petitions did not reflect his recent name change, a city electoral board ruled Wednesday.
Shabazz, a first-time candidate, says he does not plan to appeal.
“I’m a little down,” he said after the ruling. “But it’s a teachable moment. This is a teachable moment.”
The ruling comes in response to a challenge filed by Dianne McGuire, Nancy Turner and Mark Urda, who cited problems with Shabazz’s nominating petitions because they did not comply with state rules governing candidates who have legally changed their name.
The Municipal Officers Electoral Board, made up of Naperville Mayor Scott Wehrli, City Clerk Dawn Portner and City Councilman Patrick Kelly, reviewed the evidence, listened to arguments and ultimately voted 2-1 that Shabazz’s errors made him ineligible to run. Wehrli cast the one vote in favor of keeping him on the ballot.
The objection was one of two challenges the board heard Wednesday. The other was filed against council candidate Nag Jaiswal and will be decided next month after more information is provided in the case.
The Jaiswal complaint was also filed by McGuire, Turner and Urda. All three were In attendance Wednesday, and said they were pleased with the board’s ruling on the Shabazz candidacy.
“I think we’re grateful,” McGuire said.
The Shabazz objection centered on the candidate’s recent name change. His nominating petitions should be nullified, the challenge said, because he “held himself out under different varieties of names and a/k/a identifiers to hundreds of voters and the city of Naperville.”
Last year, a DuPage County judge granted a request to change Shabazz’s name from David Lee Hughes to Farid Malik Shabazz, according to online court records. According to the challenge, he failed to adequately disclose that change when asking voters to sign his candidacy petitions.
Illinois law states that a candidate who has changed their name through a statutory or common law procedure must disclose that on their petition sheets if it occurred within three years of filing to run for office. It also requires that the candidate include an affidavit stating their previous names and when they were changed as part of their nominating petitions.
Shabazz did not provide an affidavit or disclose his name change on 18 petition sheets he submitted.
“All that matters is the plain language of the statute,” Kelly said. “In this case, to me it is clear that the candidate did not substantially comply with those requirements.”
“I know the importance of the voting process,” Portner said. “I know how important it is to make sure that our residents have the right to vote for their elected officials. To me, it’s one of the cornerstones of our democracy. But before this can happen, candidates must navigate the election code requirements.”
Attorney Mario Palermo, representing McGuire,Turner and Urda in their challenge, told the board that it’s “fundamental (that voters) know for whom they’re choosing. They need to know who they are voting for.”
Palermo also raised concerns that while vetting Shabazz’s former name, a criminal history was discovered. Court documents show that Shabazz disclosed two convictions from more than 20 years ago on his name change petition.
Shabazz on Wednesday said he “has no felonies … (and) no hard criminal record in the state of Illinois” or anywhere else he has lived.
He changed his name for religious reasons and has been going by Farid Malik Shabazz in his day-to-day life for years, long before he formally made the change in court, he said. He didn’t think the requirement for disclosing the change on petition sheets applied to him because he’s been “using the name for well over 25 years,” he said.
In the wake of the board’s ruling, Shabazz said he understood why the board ruled his petitions invalid. He does not regret trying to run for the council and plans to do so again in two years.
“I’m very happy I went through this process,” he said. “I’ve got the bug, as they call it. So, no, I’m not going anywhere.”
The petition challengers said Wednesday’s hearing was a testament to the importance of not cutting corners in the electoral process.
“They are our lawmakers,” Turner said. “They are our policy makers that sit on this bench, and you need to show evidence you can complete your petitions and follow the law. And if even that basic requirement is not met, that’s a problem.”
The same thing goes for Jaiswal, whose candidacy is being questioned over whether he obtained enough valid signatures on his petitions. Verification requires that both the DuPage and Will county clerk offices confirm the signatures he obtained through a records check.
Results from that check will be presented at a hearing scheduled for Dec. 5 in the Naperville Municipal Center council chambers.
