Hiring of candidate for election day work questioned

Should someone who is running for office be hired to help conduct that election?

Kane County Board member Juan Reyna Thursday questioned a $105 payment made in April to Penny Wegman for work as a field deputy clerk in the March 20 primary. Wegman ran in that primary for the Democratic nomination for Kane County Board District 20. Reyna was reviewing the “accounts payable” list presented to the board’s public services committee when he came across the entry.

Cristina Castro, the current officeholder and Wegman’s opponent, had raised that point to committee chairman Hollie Lindgren before the meeting.

Kane County Clerk Jack Cunningham did not attend Thursday’s meeting due to illness. Lindgren asked one of his employees who was at the meeting — tax extension and vital records director Susan Ericson — if the practice was common.

Ericson, who does not normally work in the elections department, said she believed state law was checked before hiring Wegman, and that Wegman did not work in any precinct in which she was a candidate.

Field deputy clerks typically deliver and pick up election supplies to the precincts.