Madison County Board member Liz Dalton has defeated challenger Alexis Hutt for the Democrat nomination to a County Board seat covering Collinsville in District 28.
Dalton had 395 votes to Hutt's 193.
Dalton will go on to face Republican Nancy Moss of Collinsville in the November general election. Moss was unopposed in today's primary. She received 409 votes.
A challenge to Dalton's candidacy in December over her nomination paperwork was ultimately thwarted by Madison County Circuit Judge Dave Dugan, who upheld an earlier finding of a Madison County electoral board.
Republican Harold Wathan, 60, a constituent of Dalton's who lives in Collinsville, had claimed her candidacy paperwork was invalid because it wasn't properly bound when it was turned in at the County Clerk's office, as required by statute.
Although Dalton had admitted to the electoral board - comprised of County Clerk Deborah Ming Mendoza, Circuit Clerk Mark von Nida and assistant state's attorney John McGuire - that she had not bound her nomination papers when she handed them over, the board overruled Wathan's objection.
Wathan repeatedly stated during his testimony at the electoral board on Dec. 15 that video surveillance of the Clerk's office would back up his position, but said at the time that he had been denied a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for the video.
A recent opinion from the state Attorney General, however, found that county officials violated the FOIA act by denying access to the video.
A review of the video after it was released upon the AG's opinion, indicated that Dalton appeared to turn in her paperwork unbound, as predicted it would by Wathan.