‘Should I have done this?': Dozens of candidates fight to stay on Chicago's school board ballot

CHICAGO - Brenda Lee Anderson met and greeted every one of the 1,500 people who signed her petition to secure a spot on the ballot in November's school board election, the first in which Chicago voters will elect all 21 members.

In between teaching courses at Northwestern University, she recruited friends to help her canvass her Streeterville neighborhood. On one occasion, she even donned full academic regalia to put her credentials on display.

She was on "Cloud 10" when she submitted her signatures last month, she said, three times as many as required. Then she learned two people were formally contesting her nomination papers.

"This is why young people, why mothers, why all these people who have dreams and visions of running for public office, are pushed further from the idea," said Anderson, who is running in District 6A, which covers parts of the North Side.

Among the 51 people vying for a seat on the board, Anderson is one of 28 candidates facing objections to her candidacy. Objections are filed when someone, typically connected to an opposing campaign, challenges the validity of a nominating petition in an effort to remove a candidate from the ballot. In many cases, they claim the signatures are not valid.

Ballot challenges are a well-worn tactic in Illinois politics and a notorious hurdle for political newcomers. The process involves a series of hearings in which election judges review signatures one-by-one, and typically requires the objector and the candidate to hire an attorney.

For decades, the school board was composed of seven mayoral appointees. A phased transition began in 2024, when voters elected 10 Chicago Public Schools board members; another 11, including the board president, were appointed by Mayor Brandon Johnson.

In this November's race, nine board members appointed by Johnson, a close ally of the Chicago Teachers Union, are running to keep their seats, and all are facing objections, along with two members elected with CTU backing. During the 2024 school board elections, 27 of 47 prospective candidates faced objections, many of them from CTU, and more than a dozen were ultimately knocked off the ballot.

But in a reversal from the last election cycle, the Urban Center, a pro-school-choice lobbying group, is behind at least 14 of the objections.

The progressive, politically powerful CTU, meanwhile, has said it has filed none - but has offered to pay the legal fees of any candidate who requests it, a spokesperson told the Tribune.

Supporters cast the new, all-elected model as a vehicle for equity and representation for Chicago Public Schools. But some board hopefuls say that vision is already being tested as they fight for a spot on the ballot.

Urban Center Vice President Bobby Sylvester, who chairs the group's political action committee, called the objections "part of the democratic process." He said the group did not consider candidates' political leanings when challenging petitions, even though a third of its objections target CTU-aligned incumbents.

"We want to make sure that there's a level playing field for candidates, and that includes the election rules and laws," Sylvester said. "There's got to be one standard for everybody."

While frowned upon by many who want Illinois' election laws changed, the process of challenging petitions is perfectly legal. Candidates from every political stripe have done it, including in 1996, when future President Barack Obama successfully challenged all his opponents in a state Senate primary. The move knocked all his Democratic opponents off the ballot, leaving him unopposed.

The objections allege a wide range of issues with candidates' nominating petitions. Many argue that signatures are invalid because signers listed incorrect addresses or live outside of the district the candidate wants to represent.

Board candidates needed to submit at least 500 valid signatures; board president candidates had to turn in 2,500. Most candidates submitted more than the minimum required number of signatures, giving themselves a cushion in case some are invalidated.

Anderson, a teaching and research faculty member at Northwestern, is facing two objections. One, from the Urban Center, challenges the validity of her signatures. The other alleges a mismatch between her listed residence and her voter registration address.

She said she was quoted $5,000 to retain an attorney. She instead opted to accept legal representation from CTU. "It feels like you have to have all these resources, money, lawyers and connections in the Chicago election scene to make it on the ballot," Anderson said.

Other objections focus on technical issues: Appointed board member Norma Rios-Sierra, who represents District 3A on the Northwest Side, faces a challenge for omitting a hyphen in her last name in paperwork.

"It's infuriating," Rios-Sierra said. "If anything, it just gives me more motivation to get out there and go harder."

‘Reasonable pathways to ballot access'

Nearly two-thirds of the 35 objections also cite an election law provision that bars petition circulators from collecting signatures for candidates of more than one political party - or for both partisan and independent candidates - in the same election cycle. School board races are nonpartisan, but objectors argue the restriction applies because many candidates used circulators who also gathered signatures for candidates in the March Democratic primary.

The Chicago Board of Election Commissioners is tentatively planning to make a single ruling interpreting the provision, according to spokesperson Julie Metea, a decision that could disqualify 22 candidates. Metea did not say when the board would issue the ruling.

Last month, on the final day of the Illinois General Assembly session, lawmakers in an omnibus elections bill attempted to clarify the provision so that it would not apply to the school board race. But the measure did not pass.

State Sen. Robert Martwick, a Chicago Democrat and the architect of the city's elected school board, said he proposed the change after hearing from a concerned candidate. A close CTU ally, Martwick said he was "not aware" of any union involvement in the proposal - though it would have affected a large number of CTU-aligned candidates.

Martwick said the rule was originally designed to help prevent candidates who lose a primary campaign from running again in the general election as independents.

"We should be creating reasonable pathways to ballot access," Martwick said. "The idea that we eliminate all of these candidates because they have grassroots participation would be a horrible outcome."

Longtime elections attorney Burton Odelson said he was skeptical the objections citing the provision would be upheld by the city elections board. Odelson's firm represents three objectors challenging prospective candidates, none of whom cite the dual-circulation rule. "It's a manipulation of the law that I don't agree with," Odelson said.

Still, some candidates say they were blindsided by the rule now threatening to invalidate their signatures. "Their plan is essentially to eliminate all of my work," said Jason Dónes, a newcomer running in District 3B on the Northwest Side. "You're going for us on some legal trick, and that part is frustrating, especially when you know who's behind it."

To collect signatures, Dónes said he relied on a network of volunteers and friends on the Northwest Side to knock on doors and canvass community spaces. Leading up to the filing deadline, he spent hours campaigning on top of his full-time job at an education nonprofit, even though school board members are unpaid.

Dónes ran and lost in the 2024 school board race, which gave him some familiarity with the objections process, he said. He has retained an attorney and is using his own campaign funds to pay for it.

"This is part of the process, but I also see the effect on candidates, and I feel it myself," Dónes said. "There is a point where you're just like, ‘Man, should I have done this?' You get that self-doubt."

Tameka Walton, running in District 10 on the South Side, is juggling the objections process alongside the demands of work and being a single mother of four. She had to take time off from her nonprofit job and arrange childcare to spend roughly 40 hours this past week at the Chicago Board of Elections office to review signatures.

"If this was democracy at work, then you should be able to want choices on the ballot," Walton said. "This isn't allowing people to actually vote their choice in."

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This story was originally published June 21, 2026 at 6:12 AM.