Morris settles electoral board case for $18,425

Council member Terry Morris this week paid $18,425 in fines to the Illinois State Board of Elections.

The payment settles a penalty that had threatened Morris’ standing as a candidate in the April 2 election.

Morris was fined for missing filing deadlines for D-2 Quarterly Reports for Citizens to Elect Terry Morris for two years.

He had faced fines totaling $31,850 when the state board terminated Citizens to Elect Terry Morris in July for failing to file the reports. But board policy allows committees to pay lower amounts unless there is a finding of willfulness in delinquent filings.

The electoral board held a hearing on Morris’ case on Tuesday.

“They accepted my offer,” Morris said, noting that he paid the fines from his own money, not the committee’s.

The latest quarterly report for Citizens for Terry Morris shows it has $12,375, the same amount of money that it had when Morris stopped filing reports in 2016. Morris said he stopped filing the reports because there was no money going in and out of the committee and he did not realize he needed to continue filing quarterly.

Board spokesman Matt Dietrich said such fines occur “quite a bit” but often with losing candidates who don’t realize they have to continue filing reports unless they deactivate their committees.

“They just kind of walk away from it and think that they’re done,” Dietrich said. “Then, sometime in the future they find out when they want to run again I didn’t file all these reports and I have all these fines piling up.”

Morris last ran for election in 2015 and won his second term on the council.

He is running in April against Suzanna Ibarra to hold his District 5 council seat.

Anyone owing a fine to the electoral board cannot appear on a ballot in Illinois, Dietrich said. But Morris was cleared to appear on the ballot after paying the fines.

Morris also updated his D-2 quarterly reports, filing all the missing reports on Oct. 26. The reports show no activity in the campaign fund.