Three candidates for Thornton Township supervisor in 2025 were removed from the April ballot Tuesday after a township Electoral Board upheld objections to the filings.

Independent candidates Stafford Owens, Nate Fields and Sidney Moore were all disqualified due to issues with their required petitions or other filings. A challenge to Harvey Mayor Christopher Clark, who is running for the supervisor position under the Reform Thornton Township Party, was dropped.

Challenges to the supervisor candidates were made before caucuses for the Democratic Party and the Republican Party were held Dec. 3.

Despite protests from Supervisor Tiffany Henyard, who sought to run for a full term, state Sen. Napoleon Harris won the Democratic nomination. Henyard has a lawsuit pending seeking to overturn the caucus results.

Richard Nolan is the Republican candidate.

Henyard allies Michael Smith and Keith Price, who is food assistance program manager in Henyard’s township administration, brought a successful challenge against Fields for failing to bind his statement of candidacy with his nomination petitions, as required by law. Henyard attended the hearing but declined to be interviewed.

Fields said his removal from the ballot was a mistake by the Electoral Board, which ruled against him 2-1, and said he will appeal to Cook County circuit court.

“It’s just another obstacle I have to overcome,” Fields said, adding Price and Smith are “doing their best to kick out any competitors … instead of thinking about who the residents want.”

Fields said he is frustrated with the process that allowed a filing error to disqualify him from election and that voters should be able to choose their candidate for supervisor rather than be limited by the board.

The Electoral Board consisted of Trustee Chris Gonzalez as chair, Trustee Darlene Gray Everett and Clerk Loretta Wells, with Gonzalez providing the sole no vote.

The board voted unanimously to disqualify Owens, who did not attend the hearing, and Moore, who was found to have switched parties too recently from Democrat to independent. Board attorney Tiffany Nelson-Jaworski reported Owens did not have the required number of resident signatures to be on the ballot.

The action, pending court action, leaves Harris, Nolan and Clark as supervisor candidates on the April 1 ballot.

Gonzalez said his votes were informed by Nelson-Jaworski’s recommendations based on prior decisions in similar cases.

“They’re all different, even though they may at the heart be the same type of decision,” Gonzalez said. “There’s different circumstances, so you have to take each one (separately) and kind of take it from there.”

He said he wanted to dismiss the objection brought against Fields because it appeared to arise from a simple misunderstanding of the rules.

Gonzalez is running for reelection for trustee as part of a slate led by Harris for supervisor. He acknowledged that his own campaign and relationships with candidates could be perceived as a conflict of interest and that he would support instituting a more independent process to decide on electoral objections.

“You don’t want to get any kind of personal thing involved in the decision,” Gonzalez said. “You just kind of keep it as straightforward as you could.”

Challenges to candidates seeking spots on the Township Board were up Tuesday for review by a different Electoral Board led by Henyard.

ostevens@chicagotribune .com