It’s back to the drawing board for La Salle County election judges and what to pay them.

Wednesday, the La Salle County Board was scheduled to vote on a 26% increase in compensation to election judges. When it became clear there was no such consensus, the board voted 12-11 to table the compensation question until January.

The pre-Thanksgiving agenda includes a measure to increase pay to $225 per day, up from the current $185.

But opponents swiftly emerged, and for different reasons.

Board member Doug Trager (D-Ottawa) said the board should go forward with the $300 agreed to months ago in committee.

“I can’t believe we don’t want to pay election judges a fair wage to do the job they do,” Trager said. “It’s very disappointing.”

Board member Ray Gatza (R-Dimmick) said while he appreciated the hours that judges log, he concluded a pay raise would mean an unacceptable cost to taxpayers of $50,000 per election.

“The money should really go into the training,” Gatza said. “Some of these people don’t get trained well.”

Board member Jim Reid (R-Northville) said the county’s current $185 is a shade under the average of nine surrounding counties and there is no shortage to be overcome with higher pay.

“As of today we have 330 judges,” Reid said. “We don’t have a problem finding them at $185.”

As previously reported, board members loosely agreed that election judges deserved a bump had sparred repeatedly over how high to go. In early October, the board voted 16-11 to boost compensation to $300 per day.

The Oct. 9 vote wasn’t the end of it. Days later, Chairman Don Jensen (R-Deer Park) effectively vetoed the increase to $300.

“I believe the pay increase is not appropriate,” Jensen told board members via email, “it being a 62.2% increase and by the information given by the County Clerk that level of pay is not necessary to attract people to fill the spots,”

“The goal of having adequate numbers of election judges to run the polls to ensure fair, well-run elections should also be considered along with the cost to the taxpayers.”

The board, in response, overrode him with a 14-11 vote. Not every board member has access to email, so the majority decided Jensen didn’t provide satisfactory notice.