Election board votes to keep Emanuel on ballot

Chicago election commissioners voted today to keep Rahm Emanuel on the Feb. 22 Chicago mayoral ballot.

The 3-0 vote came just hours after a hearing officer recommended that the former White House chief of staff should remain in the mayor's race because he meets the city residency requirement.The election board, however, is not expected to have final say on the issue. The losing objectors have a week to appeal the board's decision to the Cook County Circuit Court. The case could wind its way through the court system, including the Illinois Court of Appeals and the Illinois Supreme Court, for weeks.

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"My goal is to get this through the courts as soon as possible," said Burt Odelson, lead attorney for the objectors, to Emanuel' attorneys after the commissioners rendered their decision.

The vote came after hearing officer Joseph Morris' 69-page recommendation was issued at nearly 2 a.m. and the board opened its meeting at 9 a.m. in a Cook County building basement.

Burt Odelson, the attorney for the lead objectors, argued that Morris' recommendation turned the law of residency on its head.

"This (69-page) recommendation, I'm trying to guard my words, is shallow. It's shallow in reciting the facts," Odelson said before the vote.

"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."

All of Emanuel's actions -- including applying for a homeowner's exemption, and amending his 2009 tax returns to declare he was an Illinois resident -- each came after Mayor Richard Daley announced he would not seek re-election, Odelson said.

Odelson declared Emanuel's moves as "self-serving action(s) taken to bolster his residency."

Election board chairman Langdon Neal gave objectors 15 minutes to read Morris' recommendation "since we did get it very late last night."

Neal limited the more than 24 challengers to 10 minutes each to argue before the commissioners as long as they made "substantive legal arguments."

Emanuel's attorneys and Odelson, the lead attorney for the objectors, said they needed about half an hour combined to make their case before the board decides.

Emanuel said earlier today he was encouraged by Joseph Morris' recommendation.

"It affirms what I have said all along -- that the only reason I left town was to serve President Obama and that I always intended to return," Emanuel said in a statement released this morning.

"Chicago voters should ultimately have the right to decide the election - and to vote for me, or against me. And they deserve a swift conclusion to this process."

Morris' recommendation came after a hearing last week that stretched out for several days and featured a colorful cast of characters arguing that Emanuel does not belong on the ballot because he does not meet the requirement of living in the city for at least a year before the election. Emanuel's attorneys argued that Emanuel always intended to return home to Chicago while serving as White House chief of staff and did not sell his North Side home.