DuPage County forced to pay election-related bill after vendor sought payment
Editor’s note: This story has been updated to include a response from Hart InterCivic.
DuPage County Board members this week approved a $629,068 expenditure after learning the bill had been sent to the county clerk’s office months earlier.
Vendor Hart InterCivic billed the DuPage County clerk’s office in September. But county finance officials did not learn the bill was unpaid until April 1, according to an April 14 memo to county board members from Jeff Martynowicz, the county's chief financial officer.
"Finance was notified on April 1, 2026 by Hart InterCivic's CFO that Hart InterCivic has turned off telephone service to the machines and will not provide services until its invoice is paid," Martynowicz wrote in his memo.
In an email Friday, Hart InterCivic disputed the characterization of the company’s actions in Martynowicz’s memo.
“To clarify, there was no reference to ‘turn(ing) off the telephone service to the machines’ as described in the April 14th memo from the County CFO,” wrote Steven Sockwell, vice president of corporate development and corporate communications for Hart InterCivic. “And, to further clarify, Hart equipment is not connected to any telephone or remote service.”
According to Sockwell, Hart InterCivic’s CFO on April 1 discussed the county election department’s wishes to schedule an on-site preventative maintenance appointment for the voting system. The company, however, said it would prefer to wait until the outstanding invoice was resolved, Sockwell said.
In an emailed statement Friday, Martynowicz said his memo “accurately reflects the county’s conversation with a representative of Hart InterCivic.”
County board members Tuesday expressed frustration over the billing mess. They have had an ongoing feud with County Clerk Jean Kaczmarek over bills and how she runs her office.
Still, they said, the bills had to be paid because the services were already rendered.
“Even though I think we need to hold our nose in doing so, I think we have to pay,” county board member Sam Tornatore said.
The county board had to approve a $190,815 fund transfer within the clerk’s budget to get the bill from Hart InterCivic fully paid.
In addition to paying Hart InterCivic, the county board agreed to pay bills from four other vendors for election-related services. The amount of those expenses totaled $628,189.
On Wednesday, DuPage County Chief Deputy Clerk Adam Johnson rebuffed the outrage from board members, saying their decision to pay the bills proves the clerk’s office has been right all along and that the county board cannot delay payment of bills.
Noting that bills from the clerk’s office have been denied for payment in the past, Johnson said bills from the March primary were not turned over for payment until after the election to prevent any disruption to the election.
“We were deliberately avoiding anything that would have jeopardized the election,” Johnson said. “We didn’t trust that we could submit the election vendors’ bills and have them paid based on the county’s past actions.”
Johnson said he was not aware that any election equipment was turned off and questioned the validity of the claims outlined in the memo to board members. He said election equipment functioned properly throughout the March primary.
“We don’t put a lot of stock in what they say on the board floor,” Johnson said, referring to this week’s county board discussion.
Hart InterCivic’s contract with the county expired last year. Under the terms of the former contract, Kaczmarek sent a letter of intent to renew in July and continues to work with Hart InterCivic without a new signed contract. Johnson said terms of the new contract are still being finalized.
Last summer, the Illinois attorney general’s office was appointed as a special prosecutor to investigate bidding practices in the county clerk’s office. Details about four of the bills approved this week are being forwarded to that office as part of the ongoing investigation, county officials said.