County hears fewer election complaints

E-mail this story

Print this story

Share

ST. CHARLES – The Kane County State's Attorney's Election hot line garnered about 120 calls Nov. 4 relating to problems, irregularities and illegal election activity, compared to at least 2,000 that the county's election office fielded that day.

Katherine Moran, chief of the office's civil division, ran the prosecutors' office's hot line and said there were no major problems or complaints.

Out of the 120 calls received, Moran said, 18 had to do with Aurora's Election Commission, 16 about electioneering, 15 on the Constitutional Convention notice, 13 about election equipment and handfuls of other election related issues, such as voter confusion over ballots and sub-circuits.

The county's election office staffed its own call center, which handled all election related questions like voter registration and polling places. After the Nov. 4 election, Kane County Clerk Jack Cunningham said, his call center received between 2,000 and 4,000 calls.

He said that was a decrease compared to the 8,000 they fielded last year. Moran said the amount of calls and type of complaints were similar to those received over the past few years of running the election hot line.

Moran said she had five teams ready to go out into the field Nov. 4 if needed. Most of the calls were handled by contacting an election judge via cell phone, she said.

And while there concerns over electioneering at polling places in Aurora, Batavia, Campton, Dundee, Geneva and Elgin, Moran said many of the callers simply did not know the rules or were confused about them.

Other voters were confused about why certain candidates did not appear on their ballot, Moran said, noting the complexities in sub circuits and precincts.

Equipment issues were reported in polling places in eight areas, including Batavia, Geneva and St. Charles. Cunningham previously said a few precincts had to use paper ballots until the voting machines were up and running.

Overall, Moran said, there were no serious problems, and he attributed that to preparation and organization of the county's election office.