Jean Kaczmarek: 2026 candidate DuPage County Clerk
Bio
Office sought: DuPage County Clerk
City: Glen Ellyn
Age: 68
Occupation: DuPage County Clerk
Previous offices held: None
Q&A
Why are you running for this office, whether for re-election or election for the first time? Is therea particular issue that motivates you?
The only office I’ve ever run for is DuPage County Clerk.
The reason I’m running now is the same reason I ran in 2018 and 2022 – my passion for an accurate, secure, open, fair and accessible electoral process.
Over two decades ago, long before anyone else was even talking about election integrity, I was engaged as a watchdog, quietly scrutinizing every detail of voting. I never saw myself running for public office until returning elections to the County Clerk’s office became a real possibility.
True leadership shows itself in moments of crisis. My office has been put to the test in these turbulent times. In the last seven years, we’ve faced cybersecurity threats and complex system changes to pave the way for the largest voter turnout in DuPage history in 2020. As if that wasn’t enough, we had to run a Primary the very week the pandemic was shutting down society. As with all election offices across the country, we’re remaining strong during a steady drumbeat of misinformation and disinformation attempting to delegitimize elections.
Throughout these challenges, defending democracy has remained my mission. I vow to protect your right to vote.
If you are an incumbent, describe your main contributions. Please share any notable initiativesyou've led. If you are a challenger, what would you bring to the job, and what would be your priority?
Under my leadership the past seven years, the County Clerk's office has:
- Forged DuPage County into a trailblazer of voter access and turnout
- Led Illinois as the first county offering “Vote Anywhere” on Election Day, rather than limiting voters to their home polling place
- Doubled the number of Early Voting sites
- Robustly promoted vote-by-mail and signed up 100,000 permanent mail voters
- Conducted ten flawless elections, three during COVID
- Won the 2023 Innovation Award from the International Association of Government Officials
- Replaced the County's 20-year-old election equipment with the most secure, state-of-the-art, 100% paper system
- Administered over 66,000 annual vital records such as birth certificates and marriage licenses and calculated property tax rates yearly for roughly 336,000 parcels - PERFECTLY since 2018
- Absorbed election duties from the failed Election Commission with no transition period and transformed DuPage elections from a front-page laughingstock into a model for the state
- Fought against illegal outside interference with my office's operations, drawing support from County Clerks throughout Illinois for defending the independence of elections
Name one concrete program you’ll create or personnel move you’ll make to improve efficiency in the office or make it more successful. Explain how it will be funded and how you willovercome any obstacles to initiating it.
I have led the DuPage County Clerk’s Office to become the gold standard for voter access in Illinois despite having to constantly battle a county board that shamefully underfunds elections. While sitting on a $25 million surplus, the board failed to provide enough money to cover the costs of running both a primary and general election this year even after being provided an itemized breakdown of the required expenses. The board’s finance chair is not seeking re-election to that office, and I hope that her replacement will be someone who prioritizes election funding. I will continue to fight to keep delivering DuPage voters the best-run elections in the state. If that requires taking the board to court, I will not back down.
In my next term, I also intend to advocate for changes to election law to increase voter access. Currently, the vote-by-mail and early voting period begins before the period for courts to rule which candidates are on the ballot ends. This can lead to delays in beginning voting while candidate eligibility is being determined. I want to give voters the maximum number of days to vote and will work to get the law changed so the ballot is finalized earlier.
How secure are you in the knowledge that election results in the county are reported fairly and
I am confident that election results in DuPage County are reported fairly and accurately. I sign my name to it.
My highest priority was to replace 20-year-old voting equipment. DuPage elections were so neglected that we were using cast-off machines from small downstate counties.
DuPage now has 100% paper ballots – the gold standard in election security. Our new system was certified by Illinois to meet the highest security standards. It is never connected to the internet, making it impossible to hack.
Elections are safeguarded by trained election workers and bipartisan teams of election judges, ensuring oversight of the entirety of the process. My staff works proactively with the State’s Attorney’s Office to protect the integrity of DuPage County’s elections and ensure that rare attempts at fraud are prevented and prosecuted.
Under the most intense scrutiny of any election in DuPage history, the recount of a countywide race confirmed the results of the 2020 General Election, and a judge dismissed false claims that ballots were miscast and miscounted.
Our voter data has layers of federal, state and local protection. Illinois has a virtual fortress surrounding its voter database.