Heyworth school board election referendum still undecided, awaits certification

HEYWORTH — A number of school board districts across Central Illinois are still waiting to see how candidates will be elected after voters weighed in this week.

Election officials said they are continuing to review results in the days following Election Day, and they have not yet declare whether school board districts will be elected at-large instead of from congressional townships.

Voters were asked to choose between the systems in a referendum held in 11 Illinois school districts, including Heyworth Community Unit School District 4, which received 1,549 votes in favor of at-large elections and 1,075 votes in favor of retaining their current system of congressional townships.

According to state law, in order for the referendum to pass it must receive a two-thirds majority overall or it must pass in each congressional township.

McLean County Clerk Kathy Michael said in an email, election results are not final until 14 days after Election Day as all election authorities await vote-by-mail ballots.

As long as ballots are postmarked on or before Nov. 5, they will count if all the provided information is correct. Ballots will be reviewed by Republican and Democratic judges, Michael said.

Heyworth Superintendent Lisa Taylor said, depending on the results, the district will either continue with their current process of voting school board candidate by congressional townships or move forward with the at-large process, which would have every school board member up for immediate reelection.

The members would be split into groups of four and three, with each group being reelected in two years or four years

Taylor said she understands the benefits of both processes with congressional township elections allowing for individuals in more rural and less populated parts of the district to have representation and at-large elections filling each seat through a majority vote.

"I think diverse perspectives and geographically for us, that is important. However, at the same time we need to be able to fill the seats and we need people that wanting to be involved," Taylor said. "At this point, since we didn't fill seats, it makes sense to me that we open that up to people who are interested and motivated and want to be involved in this way."

Contact Mateusz Janik at (309) 820-3234. Follow Mateusz on Love

Government Reporter