The debate over how much to pay La Salle County election judges took a turn recently when Ottawa on Democrat Doug Trager argued Chairman Don Jensen didn’t properly notify the board of his reversal.

Why didn’t Jensen’s action count? Trager said Jensen needed to notify board members in writing. Jensen used email instead.

“All the board members do not have email,” Trager said.

An analysis by Shaw Media suggests Trager was correct about some board members being offline and unavailable via email. To test Trager’s observation and to quantify responses, each board member was sent a test email on Wednesday, Nov. 5. Only 10 members responded over the following five days.

Three members were exempted from the analysis because of medical issues. Even without those carve-outs, however, sixteen members failed to answer. That puts the overall response rate at just 39%.

Trager said he wasn’t surprised. Over time, he had noted which members use computers and email and which do not. Consequently, he expected a low response rate.

“I know at least five, maybe six members who have turned back in their county computers – they don’t use them, they don’t want them,” Trager said. “I know of others who have no personal email, either, so there’s no way to email them at all.”

Jensen said he, too, was generally aware of members who are inactive or not tech-savvy.

“I wasn’t really aware of the extent of it,” Jensen said. “I haven’t really looked at how many actually do look up their emails and respond. We’ll have to take a look at that and see.”

Each board member was contacted using the email addresses listed on the county’s home page, all ending in a “lasallecountyil.gov” domain. Each was asked to reply with updated contact information and was not given a deadline or a requested response time.

Several members responded right away. Ali Braboy, Matt Slager, Tom Miller and Arratta Znaniecki all responded in an hour or less. Trager, Stephen Aubry and Joey Oscepinski replied by noon Wednesday.

“I was elected to serve District 24 and I pride myself on being responsive to my constituents,” Znaniecki said. “I think we should all do the same.”

Several others respond over the next few days and over the weekend.

At issue is whether board members responded to the county-issued email addresses listed on the county’s website, which would be the first resource to constituents trying to get in touch with their representatives.

Survey results do not reflect an officeholder’s overall accessibility, either. Tom Templeton, for example, has been prompt in responding to past media queries, but he acknowledged Monday he had not recently checked his county-issued account and, when asked to verify receipt, said he encountered a technical issue.

Similarly, Ray Gatza said he is vigilant about checking email, but in recent days he’s been bedeviled with a still-unresolved (as of Monday) password issue —“This is a one-time occurrence,” he insisted —and has pressed for expanded use of email.

Braboy noted the response rate needed to be considered in light of those grappling with personal illness, but she nonetheless urged all members to consider an open discussion about outreach.

“Our constituents deserve to be heard and they deserve a response from us,” Braboy said. “Constituents have busy lives, so an email may be the only time or way to send their concerns. We have to be available.”