A Cook County Electoral Board on Tuesday struck down objections brought against Thornton Township Supervisor and State Sen. Napoleon Harris’ candidacy as township committeeman as he seeks reelection next year.

Hearing officer Frank Tedesso previously dismissed most of the arguments brought by Keith Price and Michael A. Smith against Harris’ eligibility to appear on the March 17, 2026 primary ballot. Price and Smith are both former allies of Tiffany Henyard, the former Dolton mayor and Thornton Township supervisor.

Tedesso recommended Tuesday that Harris appear on the ballot for township committeeman after neither Price nor Smith showed up to present evidence 30 minutes after the hearing’s scheduled start time.

Harris will face former ally and township Trustee Stephanie Wiedeman, who supported Price and Smith in their objections, in the race for Thornton Township Democratic committeeman.

Wiedeman told the Daily Southtown last month that she joined Price and Smith in looking over Harris’ nominating petitions, not thinking she would find anything that could disqualify the former NFL player and longtime state senator from the local party position.

“But once we got the petitions and we started to go through them and we started to see some of the things we saw, I was just like, this is unbelievable,” Wiedeman said.

Wiedeman, Price and Smith alleged Harris’ nominating petitions included eight pages of duplicate signatures. Wiedeman said these sheets had “exactly the same signatures on them,” but were differentiated by the circulators listed and the days on which they were notarized.

Burt Odelson, attorney for both Harris and the township, looked over the contested signatures and agreed some petition sheets were copies that “shouldn’t have been in there.” But he said that excluding the copies, Harris still has enough signatures to remain on the ballot.

Tedesso appeared to agree Tuesday, saying Harris submitted 790 valid signatures where 754 were required.

Attorney Steve Laduzinsky, representing Harris at Tuesday’s electoral board hearing, said he had planned to block efforts for Price and Smith to present evidence at Tuesday’s hearing, as they failed to comply with a requirement to submit their evidence to the board 24 hours in advance.

“We submitted our evidence, which was a pack of affidavits and registrations. So if (Price) did get us below that number (of signatures) we could recover some,” Laduzinsky said.

The electoral board previously dismissed objections brought against Wiedeman, settling that both candidates will appear on the ballot.

Wiedeman said she maintained a decades-long relationship with Harris and trusted he would get the township on the right track after the tumultuous term of Henyard, who remains under federal investigation.

But Wiedeman said since Harris was sworn in in May, their relationship has deteriorated, with Wiedeman being rehired within the township and quitting two weeks later.

“I don’t know what to say outside of our current leadership is selfish,” Wiedeman said Wednesday. “I really think there needs to be a community approach and I’m not seeing that.”

When asked about the desired outcome for the committeeman election, Laduzinsky said to “let the voters decide” who should prevail.

ostevens@chicagotribune.com