A Republican treasurer candidate in Knox County has been removed from the March 2026 primary ballot for failing to state what office she was running for on her statement of candidacy.
The Knox County electoral board — composed of Knox County Clerk Scott Erickson, Circuit Clerk Mary Ostrander, and State’s Attorney Ashley Worby — made that ruling Friday afternoon after reviewing Janet Windish’s paperwork.
The objection to Windish’s nominating paperwork was filed by fellow Republican treasurer candidate Jerrie Ann Walters, who also faces an objection to her nominating petitions.
In all, objections were filed against five Republican candidates running in the March primary. With Windish removed from the ballot, four objections are pending, with evidentiary hearings scheduled for Dec. 12.
The remaining objections against Erickson, Walters, and county board candidates Anthony Weiss and Tammy Weiss pertain to the validity of dozens of signatures collected on nominating petitions.
At Friday’s meeting, the electoral board conducted a binder check of the disputed signatures, comparing what’s written on the nominating petitions to signatures on official voter files.
Here are the details on the remaining objections — and where those ballot challenges stand.
Scott Erickson: Six signatures
Pamela Davidson, a county board member and chair of the Knox County Democrats, filed the objection against the county clerk’s nominating petitions, citing clusters of signatures that appear to be written by the same person. That includes five signatures on one petition sheet and two on another.
As the board began to review the disputed signatures in Erickson’s petitions, he announced he needed to recuse himself. Ostrander and Worby then determined that six of the seven disputed signatures on Erickson’s petitions did not match the voter registration signatures on file.
Or as Erickson put it, only one of the disputed signatures "survived" the binder check.
Copies of the objection obtained by TSPR indicate that one person signed their own name and six other people’s names on Erickson’s petitions.
The electoral board, which is expected to include Treasurer Robin Davis as an alternate member in the objection Erickson, will hear testimony from Erickson at the next hearing.
The objection doesn’t just ask for the disputed signatures to be removed. Davidson argues that Erickson “falsely verified” the signatures, by signing affidavits on the petition sheets that say he witnessed the signatures.
Davidson cites election code case law in accusing Erickson of a “pattern of fraud” in certifying two petition sheets with forged signatures. She’s asking the electoral board to discard all of Erickson’s petition sheets as a result, thereby removing him from the ballot.
Jerrie Ann Walters: 13 signatures
Davidson also filed the objection against treasurer candidate Jerrie Ann Walters. It is similar to the objection against Erickson, in that it cites clusters of signatures that appear to be written in the same handwriting, but it also goes further.
Davidson calls into question a total of 14 signatures on three of Walters’ petition sheets. That includes eight signatures in the same handwriting on one page, two signatures on another page, and two sets of two signatures on a third page.
Only one disputed signature on Walters’ petitions survived the binder check.
Two of those petition sheets were certified by a circulator, Rebecca Friedrich, and one was certified by the candidate. Friedrich and Walters will be subpoenaed to testify at the Dec. 12 hearing.
Davidson again cites a “pattern of fraud” and asks for all of Walters’ petition sheets to be discarded, which would remove her from the primary ballot.
Davidson also filed a similar petition against Windish, citing six signatures on one petition sheet that appeared to be in the same handwriting. Because Windish’s statement of candidacy was incomplete, which removed her from the ballot, the electoral board did not consider the validity of those signatures.
Anthony Weiss and Tammy Weiss: Four signatures each
Two candidates for District 1 on the county board face identical objections. Anthony Weiss is running for a second term on the board, while Tammy Weiss is seeking a first term.
The objections against the Weisses, filed by Darla Krejci and Ronald Erickson, cite four signatures on each set of nominating petitions they say are invalid.
That includes two people who the objectors said had already signed a Democratic candidate’s petitions for the same seat, making their signatures on the Weiss petitions invalid. Those objections also argue one signer of the petitions lives in District 3, not District 1, and another isn’t a registered voter.
None of those signatures survived the binder check.
The objectors argue that without those four signatures, the candidates do not have enough to be on the ballot.
The Weisses also will be subpoenaed to testify at the evidentiary hearing.
The next hearing
The evidentiary hearing will begin at 1:30 p.m. on Friday, Dec. 12 at the Knox County courthouse.
James Greenwood, an attorney with Greenwood Law in Rock Island, represents the objectors.
He confirmed Friday that Erickson, who is by state statute the chair of the county electoral board, will not be subpoenaed. Instead, Greenwood joked that he was confident that Erickson would show up.
Greenwood initially had also filed subpoenas for employees of the clerk’s office and for disputed signers, but he has dropped those. He said those subpoenas were drafted before he knew the board would hold a binder check hearing.
Note: TSPR obtained copies of the objections through a Freedom of Information Act request. TSPR is not publishing the objections because they contain personal information including names and home addresses of signers and the candidates.The objections are public record, however.
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