Opal Caroline Malare has vowed that what has been referred to as “Staplegate” will not deter her from seeking elected office in O’Fallon.
The first-time candidate filed a petition to run for city clerk that was successfully challenged by incumbent Jerry Mouser for improper filing. She’ll bypass the appeal process, she says, and campaign for the seat as a write-in.
At issue was Malare’s paperwork. It was not stapled per the petition’s instructions. She used a paper clip to bind the pages, but removed it when she submitted them at city hall to Deputy City Clerk Misty McDonald.
“This was the first time I ever did this,” Malare said.
Mouser’s objection was backed by a Municipal Board of Election Commissioners, which decided at a Nov. 26 hearing that her name should be left off the consolidated election ballot on April 1, 2025. The board consisted of Aldermen Jerry Albrecht and Ross Rosenberg and Mayor Herb Roach.
Malare, who goes by her middle name and has lived in O’Fallon since 2005, is retired. She previously managed a retail outlet store for Wonder Bread, was a supervisor at Walgreens, and had been a business administrator at a nursing home in Missouri.
She said her business experience would be beneficial as a city clerk. She wants to run, in part, because Mouser had no opposition and she supports the democratic process.
“Why should he be a shoo-in?” she said.
Mouser, who served as an alderman for 18 years, from 1997 to 2016, resigned when he moved three blocks out of Ward 3. He ran for city clerk in 2017 and was re-elected without opposition in 2021.
He retired as business manager from a Jack Schmitt car dealership and has lived in O’Fallon since 1984.
Malare had the option to appeal the commission’s decision, but has instead decided to campaign as a write-in candidate.
The city clerk position is part-time. Duties include issuing licenses (business, liquor) and special permits, taking care of cemetery business, reviewing council agendas, taking roll call at council meetings and managing paperwork.
Illinois election rules
Illinois election rules state that filing petitions “shall be bound securely and numbered consecutively” and that they must be “neatly fastened together in book form at one edge in a secure and suitable manner.” The front page of the package even has a space marked to show where the pages should be bound.
Paperclips, the state’s candidate’s guide specifies, are not secure enough and, therefore, may be disqualifying if challenged, which Mouser did within the mandated five-day window.
“We may not always like a law but when you are asked to rule on a matter that is covered under law, you should follow the law,” Roach said.
Malare said she was notified at 3 p.m. Monday, Nov. 25, that her petition was being challenged and that the hearing was scheduled for noon the next day. She’s certain of the time, she said, because her Bible study group was leaving her home as the police officer approached to serve her notice.
“I was given less than 24 hours’ notice. I had no time to get legal counsel,” she said.
She explained that when she and her husband, Vern Malare, showed up at the hearing, Mouser had attorney Brian Flynn present. City Attorney Todd Fleming also was present to facilitate the hearing.
Malare argues that Roach should have recused himself from the hearing since he had helped collect signatures for Mouser’s petition. Had she had time to retain a lawyer, maybe the mayor would not have been on the panel, she said.
“The lawyer objected to everything I or my husband tried to say in my defense,” she said.
'Treated like a criminal'
At a recent O’Fallon City Council meeting, Malare commented about the objection to her petition and the election commission’s treatment of her in the aftermath.
“For a missing staple, I was treated like a criminal,” she said. “Is this the way that anyone who tries to run for office, especially for the first time, is going to be treated? ... Do any of you sitting up there really care about the people in your community?”
Similar concerns were echoed by Leah Kent, an O’Fallon resident and friend of Malare’s who attended the election commissioner’s hearing.
“I went to support my friend. I couldn’t believe the way she was treated, how she was disrespected. Who would do that to a citizen?” she told the council Monday.
Following the Nov. 26 hearing, Mouser commented on Facebook: “I had my day in court and the law prevailed.”
Mouser has not responded to requests for comment.
When contacted by the Belleville News-Democrat, Roach said challenges to nominating petitions are not uncommon. In Malare’s case, he said, the rules relevant to Mouser’s objection were made clear in a publication provided to all candidates by the Illinois State Board of Elections.
“The hearing happens when a petition is challenged, and she is not the first one to be challenged,” he said. “If you look in the 2025 Candidate’s Guide, on page 25 and 26 it goes through the entire process.”
It’s not even the first time a petition filed by a candidate named Malare was challenged in O’Fallon. In 2023, Malare’s husband remained on the ballot for Ward 3 alderman despite objections from incumbent council member Andrea Fohne.
Fohne outlined four complaints against Vern Malare’s petition, which were all later dismissed by a board of commissioners that included Mouser. Fohne went on to defeat Malare in the election.
Editor's note: This story was originally published by the Belleville News-Democrat. Lynn Venhaus reports for the Belleville News-Democrat, a news partner of St. Louis Public Radio.
