CHICAGO (AP) – The State Board of Elections is referring a legal question about three St. Clair County judges’ campaign strategies to Attorney General Lisa Madigan.

Circuit judges John Baricevic, Robert Haida and Robert LeChien resigned in name only to avoid retention elections that require 60 percent approval rather than a simple majority.

The Belleville News-Democrat (http://bit.ly/1lwKlqi ) reports the board deadlocked in a 4-4 vote Wednesday on whether to accept a hearing officer’s recommendation to reject a challenge from Belleville City Clerk Dallas Cook, a Republican candidate for St. Clair County circuit clerk.
The three sitting judges are Democrats.

The board then voted 6-2 to seek a legal opinion from the state’s top prosecutor. Cook said he plans to press his complaint at the circuit court level in Cook or Sangamon counties.