A Villa Park trustee who planned to run for the Illinois Senate as a Democrat will not appear on the November ballot, in part because he voted Republican in the February primary.

The DuPage County Officers Electoral Board voted 2-1 Tuesday morning to remove Tom Cullerton from the ballot. Cullerton was running against Republican state Sen. Carole Pankau, R-23rd District, of Itasca for her seat.

Democratic leaders selected Cullerton to fill an empty spot on the ballot after the Feb. 5 primary.

Lawyers for the county GOP argued that a person cannot declare himself a member of one party by voting in that party’s primary and then run as a candidate for another party in the subsequent general election.

“It defies logic to say that a candidate can pull a ballot and vote in a partisan primary and within the same election cycle ... participate with the other party also,” GOP election attorney Burt Odelson said. “You can’t have two bites at the apple. You’d destroy the party system. You might as well not have political parties.”

Attorneys for Cullerton argued that previous court decisions uphold the right of candidates and voters to switch their party affiliation. The only restriction, they said, is that a candidate who is defeated in one party’s primary cannot run as a candidate for another party in the general election.

“Frankly, the United States Supreme Court has spoken clearly that a person has the right, the First Amendment right, to associate freely with the party of one’s choice,” said Courtney Nottage, one of Cullerton’s attorneys is this one of Cullerton’s lawyers? . “And the Illinois Supreme Court has effectively interpreted and implemented that decision.”

Nottage said his client plans to appeal the Electoral Board’s ruling.

The official ruling will be issued May 23, and Cullerton’s attorneys will have 10 days to file their notice of appeal.

Also at issue in the case was the date on Cullerton’s nominating resolution.

Odelson argued that the date Democratic leaders selected Cullerton as their candidate was not clearly stated in his paperwork. The board agreed with that argument, also by a 2-1 vote.

Electoral Board member Jeanne McNamara cast the only vote to keep Cullerton’s name on the ballot.

“I feel a candidate has the right to switch parties,” she said.

Patrick Bond, the Electoral Board’s attorney, said the Illinois General Assembly could resolve issues like this in the future by more clearly defining the rules for candidates’ participation in party primaries.