Judge dismisses lawsuit by 49th Ward challenger

Tribune staff report
July 21, 2007

CHICAGO - A Cook County Circuit judge on Friday dismissed the complaint brought by the challenger in the April 17 election for the 49th Ward aldermanic seat.

Don Gordon said that although Judge Marsha Hayes had tossed his suit alleging vote fraud in his runoff race against incumbent Ald. Joe Moore, his attorneys will submit a new legal complaint.

Gordon pushed Moore, who was first elected in 1991, into a runoff, which Moore won by 247 votes.

The citizens of this ward are left with this question: since the Judge has ruled that you don't have  facts to support your claims, nor a plausible resolution to address the case if you had won, are you ready to admit that you came close, were a little short and end the legal action or do you still intend to continue trying to take away the voting rights of thousands of voters in our ward?  Even by your own account, (which neither I, Judge Hayes nor your facts support),  this case is about a couple of  hundred people, not the thousands that are the  basis of your claims and  resolution.  Where is the protection of voter rights you're touting with VOTER49 when you want to strip several thousand voters of their vote in April 2007?

VOTER 49, your new group, seems to be about two things: making sure certain people can or cannot vote as determined by your campaign's judgment which is a position that is far more troubling than the things you have presented as "facts" supporting your case.  The second thing VOTER49 appears to be about is developing a self-serving political agenda for 2011.