Countdown to Rahmageddon: Rahm Stays on the Ballot

By Chuck Sudo in News on Dec 23, 2010 6:55PM

The city Board of Election Commissioners voted unanimously to keep Rahm Emanuel on the ballot for February's mayoral election. Game back on, people.

Hearing officer Joseph Morris, after days of testimony, came to his conclusion that Emanuel remain on the ballot at 2 a.m. (read his opinion here in PDF format) and the Commissioners got to voting to retain Emanuel on the ballot shortly after they opened their meeting at 9 a.m., after 15 minutes of review by objectors.

Election attorney Burt Odelson, who also advises James Meeks, called Morris' recommendation and the commissioners' vote "shallow in reciting the facts" while seeming to lay the blame for his failed case at the feet of other objectors.

"I was extremely disappointed we had to wait that long for such a poor product. This wasn't a difficult case. It only became difficult because of all of the objectors."

We've theorized previously that the impetus for the challenges to Emanuel's residency isn't Odelson's claim that Emanuel had to live in Chicago for a year before running for mayor, but that it was to sow seeds of doubt that Emanuel wasn't Chicagoan enough for some. Odelson said he still intends to fight Emanuel's place on the ballot, even if it has to go all the way to the State Supreme Court, and hopes the process is swift.