Presidential election brought slew of judges for Kane County election

Barack Obama and John McCain may have dashed Kane County residents' hopes of finding work as judges for the April 7 election.

Their presidential contest last November brought 1,200 people who wanted the day job of overseeing polling places when ballots are cast. Kane County election judges hope the wave of enthusiasm will continue into next month.

"We're pretty set," said Linda Mitchell, supervisor of elections. "We could always use bilingual judges though. We can never have enough of them."

Voters will be electing members to school, park, fire and village boards, along with city councils, township offices a handful of property tax referenda.

In all, about 1,145 judges work the polls in more than 100 precincts outside the city of Aurora, which has its own election commission.

"In the past we've had five judges for each polling place, but that number has been reduced since we've adopted the vote center concept," she said. "We've put a couple of precincts in the same polling place and instead of needing five for each, we can get by with seven for the site."

Judges report to work at 5 a.m., open the polls an hour later, close them at 7 p.m. and stay until 9 p.m. They check in registered voters, make sure equipment is working and direct voters to an instructional video if they have any questions.

"It's a long day. They also make sure no electioneering is done too close to the polls," she said. "No election signs can be closer than 100 feet from the door of the polls. If they are, they tell the candidate to take them down. If they don't listen, the police are called."

Judges earn $145 for the day if they go through the four hours of training Kane County officials offer. If they don't, they earn $105.

"Now, we have a good cross section of people who work as judges. They came out for the presidential election. I'm glad they did because we had a 74 percent turnout rate, the highest in the state," Mitchell said. "It won't be nearly as high for the upcoming election. It never is for local races."

Less than three years ago, county election officials had a hard time finding enough judges to replace the retirees who worked November elections then went to warmer climates for the rest of the winter.

They turned to high school administrators and trained a handful of seniors to work as student judges.

"People can still apply to be judges; we'll hire right up until two days before election day," she said. "We may not need them, though."

For information, call the Kane County election office at (630) 232-5990.