THIRD DIVISION
Filed: 03/24/03

JUSTICE HOFFMAN delivered the opinion of the court:

The plaintiffs, Ralph Jenkins and Clifton Graham, Jr., brought the instant action seeking toobtain court orders requiring Deborah M. McIlvain, City Clerk for the City of Country Club Hills,to certify their names as candidates to be placed on the ballot for the city's April 1, 2003,consolidated election and enjoining David Orr, Cook County Clerk, from printing election ballotsthat did not contain their names. The circuit court entered judgment in favor of the defendants onthree counts of the plaintiffs' five count complaint, and the plaintiffs now appeal.

The plaintiffs, Jenkins and Graham, timely filed nomination papers seeking to have theirnames placed on the ballot for the City of Country Club Hills' April 1, 2003, consolidated electionas candidates for the offices of alderman of the city's Fifth Ward and mayor, respectively. Theplaintiffs included with their nomination papers receipts from the Cook County Clerk verifying thateach had filed a statement of economic interests on December 27, 2002. No objections were filedto the plaintiffs' nomination papers. On January 23, 2003, McIlvain wrote to each of the plaintiffsand informed them that they would not be certified as a candidates for the April 1, 2003, electionbecause: 1) their statements of economic interests were not filed in the same calendar year as theirnominating petitions and 2) their nominating petitions were not bound when filed as required bysection 10-4 of the Election Code (10 ILCS 5/10-4 (West 2000)). On January 30, 2003, McIlvaincertified to the Cook County Clerk the names to be listed on the ballot for the city's April 1, 2003,election. She did not include the plaintiffs' names.

On February 14, 2003, the plaintiffs filed a five count complaint against McIlvain, bothpersonally and in her capacity as City Clerk, and Orr, in his capacity as Cook County Clerk. In countI of the complaint, the plaintiffs sought a temporary restraining order and preliminary and permanentinjunctions compelling McIlvain to file an amended certification of ballot certifying their names ascandidates for the April 1, 2003, election and enjoining Orr from printing and distributing electionballots without their names. In count II, the plaintiffs sought a writ of mandamus compellingMcIlvain to certify their names as candidates in the April 1, 2003, election. In count III, the plaintiffssought a declaratory judgment that McIlvain had no discretion to refuse to certify their names to Orr. In counts IV and V of their complaint, the plaintiffs alleged causes of action under 42 U.S.C.