Special election not cheap, Kane County officials say

The upcoming special election to fill retired U.S. Rep. Dennis Hastert's unfinished term is expected to cost Kane County taxpayers close to $500,000, officials said Friday.

The biggest chunk -- about $272,000 -- of the $484,000 expense is needed to pay and train election judges, officials said, while tens of thousands of additional dollars will cover supplies, printing, polling place rentals and other must-haves.

"It all adds up," Deputy Clerk Jay Bennett told the county board's public service committee Friday.

The special general election is March 8. Voters in the 14th Congressional District will decide who finishes the remaining 10 months of former House Speaker Hastert's term. Hastert left office early.

On Friday, the public services committee approved the election cost estimate and forwarded it to the county board's finance committee, which will weigh how to fund the additional cost.

"We've got the money to proceed, but if we don't get (reimbursed), we won't have enough to run the (regular) general election" in November, County Clerk Jack Cunningham said.

Cunningham noted his office would have had to retrain several judges soon anyway, regardless of the special election, to comply with a statute that aims to keep judges updated on their election responsibilities.

County board member Philip Lewis, a St. Charles Republican, suggested officials look at digging into what's left of a $1.1 million surplus in the county budget and other contingencies.

"There's surplus dollars floating around especially for unusuals," he said. "This is definitely an unusual."

Also on Friday, Cunningham was granted tentative approval for an additional $20,000 to buy software he said will relieve problems some Feb. 5 voters had getting correct ballots.

Cunningham said no race results were affected. But numerous voters here -- and across the state -- reported being given incorrect ballots that included only federal races.

Cunningham chalked up the incidents to "human error" on the part of election judges. The new software, he said, will prevent such mistakes by essentially assigning barcodes to various types of ballots.

Lewis wondered how much training judges to use the new software might cost.

"If we continue to add equipment, we have to accept the burden of teaching people how to use this stuff," he said.