Who Sent You?
Your audio voter guide to navigate Chicago politics for Election Day and beyond
Who Sent You?
Petition Challenges with Tameka Walton, Chicago School Board District 10A Candidate
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Even with the best intentions, people who want to run for office may not make it.
Illinois has a petition scheme that allows anyone to object to your nominating petition papers.
In this episode, we hear from Andrew Finko, attorney, who discusses the origins of the petition challenges. Then we pivot to Tameka Walton, nonprofit executive director, and candidate for the Chicago School Board 10A district. After two challenges, she was knocked off the ballot and will be a write-in candidate.
It's election season in Chicago. Candidates are circulating petitions to get on the ballot, but they all won't make it. Welcome to Who Sent You Podcast, your audio voter guide to navigate Chicago politics for election day and beyond.
SPEAKER_01I will be thrown off the ballot. They challenged over 82% of my signatures, which is crazy.
SPEAKER_02On this week's episode of Who Sent You, we want to know how do candidates get on and stay on the ballot. We'll talk to election attorney Andrew Fanko, who will walk us through the petition challenge process, and then we'll hear from Tamika Walton, Chicago school board candidate for District 10A. She was thrown off the ballot and is now running a writing campaign. I'm your host, Nicole the Newslady, professionally known as Nicole Jane Johnson. Let's get into it. In Illinois, candidates have to circulate petitions just to get on the ballot. This petition is usually an 8x10 sheet of paper, sometimes 11 by 17, with the candidate's name, and a statement that affirms that the signatures on that sheet of paper are from real registered voters. Then there is an empty table with about 10 to 15 rows. Here is where voters will write in their name, sign the petitions with their signature, and address. The validity and accuracy of this information is often the subject of most petition challenges. To offer more context, I hit up attorney Andrew Fenko. He concentrates an election law, and I knew he'd be the best person to talk about how the challenge process came to be. This is who sent you? You know that saying we don't want nobody that nobody sent. And so I'm a journalist, but as a recovering politician myself, I know what it means when people look at you and say, you know, where'd you come from? Who who got who you got and all of that. And so as a former independent candidate and talking to you, love you to introduce yourself and tell me who sent you.
SPEAKER_01So my name is Tanika Walton, T A M E K A, W A L T O N. When I think about like who sent me, it's literally the folks that I represent, right? My nonprofit, I represent black and brown women and girls, and then my children, right? Um, and I always like to say that everything that I do, I want to represent my children, right? Because they literally are, and then their peers, right? But they literally are like the next generation, and they're watching me, right? So in this particular time, my children, like and their peers, and the women that I represent through Restored Hope, they sent me.
SPEAKER_02Tell me about um Restored Hope, just briefly, the work that you did.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, really briefly. Restored Hope is a nonprofit that's 16 years old this year, and we provide somatic services. So mind-body connection, couple it with traditional therapy, as well as um like tangible resources. So, you know, um diapers and wipes for the moms, parenting classes. We do a lot of um just as informed work with young women, right? Just really helping them understand, you know, if they got themselves in a situation, what it feels like in their bodies, right? Just really getting folks connect with their bodies, um, tying it directly to somatics, right? Because we really feel like, um, especially with black women, that we are checking out. I got started um years ago teaching yoga inside of CPS, right? And at first they brought it, they brought me in to do like the restorative classrooms and and calm classrooms with different things like that, like teaching teachers first, because the teachers are the ones that are in front of the students. And then, of course, we started working with you know the youth, because the youth are carrying the weight of the world. And if we don't give them space to really process, how can they learn? Everybody is carrying something. And I I really feel like, you know, mental health and mental wellness since COVID has become, I I don't want to say like buzzwords, right? But they have. So, how do we really put it in practice and make sure that our students are well? What does it look like for wellness? Yes, that is very important to me as I'm I'm running for this seat. So I'm running for the Chicago School Board, District 10A.
SPEAKER_02District 10A, tell us the district, the area, the neighborhoods, crossing streets, things like that, just to give folks uh understanding of where this is.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so when you think of district 10a, you kind of think of like the lake, right? So we have a little bit of a lake. We have High Park, um, we have North Kenwood, we have South Shore, Jackson Highlands, or Jackson Park, depending on who you're asking. You have a little bit of Chatham. I like to think if you go along Lake Shore, right? Um, to 31st Street, and then you go to the Dan Ryan Lake to like 81st, I believe it is, right? It's a big district.
SPEAKER_02That's huge, and those are a lot of students, a lot of black students.
SPEAKER_01It's a lot of black students.
SPEAKER_02So you mentioned, you know, some the plights of black children. There's a black student success initiative, it's a five-year plan that the city this the district has. What's what's your understanding of that plan? Um, and how will you as a board member move that along?
SPEAKER_01Any plan that is in place to you know bridge like achievement gaps for students that look like me, right? And improve um improve learning experiences, right? For children that look like me, I'm all for it. Right. For children, for any child, what I think about my children, right? Um, coming from the lens of a black mother. I think it's very important that we have plans in place to support the learning of black males and raising three of them, right? Um, that we understand that not everybody learns the same, that it isn't a one-size-fit-all pot across the board um that we're rolling out for all children. So to move a plan like that forward for me is a priority. I have a um third grader. I got real stake in the game, Nicole. I'm trying to tell you. Um, and I'm coming from that lens every time, wanting boys like my son, males like my son, girls like my daughter to have a fighting chance when they graduate from Chicago Public Schools.
SPEAKER_02The district announced the committee members for Black Student Achievement Committee. And um, you know, have you taken the time to look at them? Have you engaged with them? And even if you don't know them as a board member, what would it look like to engage with them and support their efforts?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I know a couple of the members, and it looks like just having conversations. It looks like understanding, you know, how they plan on moving the plan forward and what it will look like for a board member to um support them, I guess. Um, and also how how the community can get involved and understand. I think sometimes we we forget community, uh, you know, it's common sense. But when we're talking about plans for our children, these children technically belong to someone else, right? So how are we engaging the stakeholders around these particular plans? And so I would love to, you know, sit and support the work, but also bridge the gap between making sure that the community is in an afterthought as this stuff is rolling out.
SPEAKER_02So um, you're running for this seat. Is this your first time running? Tell us about your first intro to politics um in the wow wow streets of Chicago because this is nothing to play with.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. So here's the deal. I uh I don't think I realized the realm that I was going to as related to actually being Chicago politics. Does that make sense? I'm like, this isn't our dynamic seat, this isn't a state rap, this isn't, you know. But what I've learned is that because of just the responsibility, right? And because of the level of power that one holds when you're sitting in as a Chicago board member, this is like all hands on deck when it comes to, you know, getting ballot access, if I can just say that word, right? And so my first experience with this is just trying to retain my spot on the ballot. I've done all the things, you needed 500 signatures. I got double the amount of signatures. Um, and I know what it meant to be challenged, right? When your signatures are challenged, but I didn't know what it meant, I guess. And if I can just bring in that embodiment, right, when I think about how it feels going through something that should be an inherited right, right? Um having your name on that ballot.
SPEAKER_02And you mean right is being able to run for office.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, right. Like if you if you meet the basic qualifications, right? Um the voters should be able to take it from there. But that's not how Chicago works. You have to go through, and and it's it's so normalized, and every time I bring it up, they're like, oh, that's just Chicago politics, right? You gotta go through line by line your signatures if you're challenged, you know, if that's the right signature. If someone has a a dot, is that a dot that's on their voters' registration card? All the things, Nicole. Um, squiggly lines, you know what I mean? It's like this is what politics is, right? Um so it can be very discouraging, but I remember the mission and I just I keep going. But this is also when I think about access, I think about it it's timely. I spend eight hours a day for five days at the Board of Elections in front of two screens because I have two challenges going over signatures while my objector is being paid $45 an hour. I'm losing life because I'm not working. Right? So think about how at that point, if you're being challenged and you don't have the resource, who has to walk away at that very point, right? And then you get to the point where the handwriting specialist looks and says, This many signatures we're gonna take away, and then you have to go get affidavits. Who has the capacity and the time to go back to people that have already signed your petition and say, Hey, can you sign my affidavit, stating that you signed my petition? So then you lose another realm of people that okay, they made it this far, but they're like, I don't even have the capacity to go find these people, and so you just lose qualified people. The voters lose the right at that point to choose between candidate A, B, or C because someone has to withdraw. And even after all of that, I've learned that even after all of that, there's this hearing judge officer that still can decide if they will accept your affidavits. I'm like, what kind of system? So you go back, you do all the work, get the affidavits, and it's still up to a person to say we we we're not gonna accept me. I'm just this this is democracy.
SPEAKER_02On July 28th, 2026, the Chicago Board of Elections Electoral Board voted to remove Tamika Walton from the ballot. The reason insufficient ballot signatures. You had two challengers. Do you have a sense of who's behind it? Because with the challenger, folks, is that it could be any regular registered voter that can they're willing to use their, you can lend them their name. Um, and then typically the campaign or the organization that's behind the challenge will have an attorney drop all the papers to essentially object to your petitions. Um, and and how this works is once everybody submits their petitions, people can get copies of them and then they can go through and identify which signatures they want to challenge and on what grounds have the attorney drop the papers. Um, and the person, the voter that is, it could be my grandmother, for instance. My grandmother has no idea what's going on for real, but she likes Tamika's opponent and she's said, Hey, I want you to do this, uh, do me a favor. Can you sign this paper to make this challenge, um, to challenge these petitions? And my grandmother says, Yeah. And then she goes about her business. And so, um, but someone tapped my grandmother, someone asked my grandmother again, a campaign or organization. So, do you have a sense of who might be behind your challenge?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so the urban center has publicly stated that they are behind um most of the challenges on one side, right? So the urban center is one, and then you know, my the incumbent, right, is definitely behind the other by way of another entity. My objector reviewer, right? There's a two people that were sent down to sit with me and go through the line by line from the challengers, and one of the objectors is seen at a fundraiser with the incumbent. Right. So even if the incumbent is like, I had nothing to do with it, the person who was sitting next to me for eight hours a day, five days throughout that week, is seen, you know, hanging out at a fundraiser, right? And so I'm directly linking that potential, that particular challenge to the, you know, the my opponent.
SPEAKER_02Got it. So the Urban Center, is it a recently formed 501c4?
SPEAKER_01Paul Vallis. That's um the Urban Center is Paul Vallas' pad, yeah.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, and also uh Juan Wrangle, he's uh former Uno Charter School, so they're very uh pro-choice, if you will. That's right. We're launching a um writing camp, and she's aware of what she has to overcome.
SPEAKER_01My opponent's name is also something that they're running on. What's your opponent? Trey Rhymefest Smith. Trey Rheinfest Smith.
SPEAKER_02Grammy Golden Globe and Academy Award-winning songwriter, rapper from Chicago? That Shea Rhymefest Smith.
SPEAKER_01So you see his name, even if you don't know him, you're like, I know that name. You know what I mean? You're like, oh, I know that name, right? And so it's like, okay, well, how can Tamika Walton, how can they say, let me write that name in?
SPEAKER_02What challenges does that present to you, and what advantages does it present to you? Have you considered any of those?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I mean, challenges is simply I'm not on the ballot, right? And so a lot of the work will be going across this large district, which we've already established, and literally getting people to know my name, right? Getting people to understand, you know, even how to do a write-in campaign, right? Because you can write my name on the ballot, but don't fill in the bubble, and then that's no, right? Um, and so we're gonna be doing teach-ins throughout the communities, right? So that people write in teach-ins, what we're calling them, so that people really understand what how to do a write-in um campaign or write-in ballot. Part of the thing for me, one of the advantages I feel is that I've had to go back and knock on doors all right to get affidavits, right? So I've already had two touch points with certain voters, right? I've already, you know, called people, I've reached out, um, the email to people so they know my name because of that, right? And I think that's important.
SPEAKER_02Okay, so you've got this campaign. Um what support endorsement have endorsements have you secured already? Um, who are you trying to align with? Um, all of that. You know, these are the metrics for a successful campaign. So who have you and who's been who's endorsed you, but also like what are those other metrics of success that you either have secured or are seeking to secure so that, you know, people want to take it serious. Um, so people can take you serious. Um, because you know you are a write-in candidate. It's it's gonna be a a a larger challenge than most.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I am endorsed by CTU Faculty Union. You know, they're the first ones to endorse me. I've had other interviews um waiting for folks to announce or whatever.
SPEAKER_02The other one is the Cook County College Teachers Union. Anything else you want to share with the people?
SPEAKER_01Only that, you know, this race is important. One, it's historic, right? We we've are moving from, you know, the appointed school board to folks that the community will pick, right? And so I just feel that it's very important that people are doing their research on their candidates. Each district has two, you know, 10 A and 10B, 1A, 1B, right? So understanding where they are within their district, understanding, you know, what a Chicago school board does, and just making sure that they vote. It's gonna be at the bottom of the ballot, right? And so most folks are just like don't want to get that far. But this is important. This is important. We're talking about the future of our children right now, and so just making sure that we stick it out and actually vote or write in, you know. And um, yeah, just follow me on social media. All right, well, thank you so much, Miss Walton. Yes, all right, thank you, Nicole.
SPEAKER_02When the incumbent won the seat in November 2024, 80,487 votes were cast. There were five candidates, including one Ryden, and she earned 87 votes. The winner, Jay Ryan Fett Smith, earned 25,922, nearly 33% of the votes. In order for Walton to be a contender to win, you have to get at least 500 votes based on the rules for riding candidates. With all this in mind, I had to ask attorney Andrew Fenko if he thought that the challenge process was a form of voter suppression. He gave me more than what I anticipated. Something you also mentioned early is how this I guess impacts the will of the people. Can you talk more about how you know being challenged can is it a form of voter suppression?
SPEAKER_00Oh, that's uh that's uh that's a tough I I I mean, I depends on the lens you're looking at it from. I mean, the uh the people who are lodging the objection will say, oh, uh it's it's law, it's the it's allowed under Illinois law. And so because it's allowed, and you know, I mean, laws are not necessarily all the for the best for the people. I mean, we had uh the great example that a friend of mine keeps reminding me about is that there was uh segregation of schools for for a long time, and there were 12 or 14 cases that went to the U.S. Supreme Court to say, you know, segregation is wrong. We should not treat people differently, that everybody should have equal opportunity. So they the Supreme Court said, no, we're we're not gonna change things until Brown versus Board of Education, and finally they realized, okay, well, maybe those old laws were not the right laws, and they changed them. So I think there's some, I think some of that is in play right now where some of the laws are on the books, they are properly enacted, I guess, hopefully. So, you know, at this point, I think it's there's a serious First Amendment challenge. When there's a when there's a political will, then the law gets changed.
SPEAKER_02If you want to catch the full interview from this episode's guest, head to my YouTube channel, youtube.com forward slash Ed Simplesign, Nicole the Newslady. Thanks for listening to the episode. We'll be back next week.