Kendall County Clerk prepares for June 28 primary election

YORKVILLE – Kendall County Clerk Debbie Gillette is gearing up the machinery of democracy for the June 28 primary election.

Candidates for Kendall County Board, county-wide offices and precinct committeeman will begin filing their nominating petitions with Gillette’s office at 8 a.m. on March 7, setting the wheels in motion for another election cycle.

Some candidates will arrive before the elections office opens its doors, hoping to secure the first spot on the ballot. Others are expected to file just before the deadline at the end of the business day on March 14, preferring to be the last candidate listed.

The elections office is located in the Kendall County Office Building at 111 W. Fox St. in Yorkville.

All candidates who are present at 8 a.m. on March 7 will have their names placed into lottery to determine ballot order.

Similarly, those who arrive after 4 p.m. on March 14 but prior to the 5 p.m. deadline will have their ballot placement decided by lottery.

Those who file during the period in-between will have their names placed on the ballot in the order in which they file their petitions.

The lottery to determine ballot placement for those who filed their petitions at the start or the finish of the filing period will take place on March 22. Gillette said that numbered ping-pong balls will be used to make the random decision.

Early voting will get underway on May 19.

The elections office inside the county office building on Fox Street has been enlarged in order to accommodate additional voting machines while providing social distancing.

In the last election, the office had room for four or five of the machines, Gillette said, while now with the larger space there is expected to be room for up to 20 of the voting stations.

Voters have already received their new voter registration cards, which should be checked carefully because of legislative redistricting and for some voters a change in their polling places.

There are 84,000 registered voters in Kendall County, Gillette said.

Under a new state law, every county must establish an election day “vote center” in its largest municipality, where any registered voter may go to cast a ballot.

Oswego High School, at 4250 Route 71, Oswego, will be the location for Kendall’s vote center, Gillette said.

Kendall County now has 78 precincts, served by 39 polling places plus the vote center, Director of Elections Natalie Hisaw said.

Gillette said some voting precincts have been combined, bringing many of the new precincts up to roughly 1,200 voters.

However, the increase in the number of voters is not expected to cause Election Day delays at polling places, Gillette said, because so many people are now taking advantage of early-voting and vote-by-mail opportunities.

County-wide offices up for election this year include sheriff, treasurer and clerk. The incumbents in those offices are Dwight Baird, Jill Ferko and Gillette.

Also on the ballot will be the Regional School Superintendent, for an area that includes both Kendall and Grundy counties. The incumbent is Chris Mehochko.

The entire 10-person county board is up for election this year, with five members coming from each of two districts.

The dividing line which splits the county into west and east portions will remain unchanged, even as state legislative and congressional districts are reapportioned to reflect population changes recorded in the 2020 Census.

When the county began reviewing the results of last year’s Census, bringing Kendall County to slightly less than 132,000 residents, it was found that the difference in population between the two districts is now just 283 people, or a margin of less than 1%.

Seeing no reason the reapportion the districts, county board members approved a plan to leave the existing boundary line in place.

District 1 covers the western side of the county and is geographically the larger of the two.

It includes most of Yorkville and portions of Montgomery and Sandwich, along with Plano, Bristol, Millbrook, Plattville, Newark and Lisbon.

District 2 includes Oswego, Boulder Hill and portions of Yorkville, Montgomery, Aurora, Plainfield, Minooka and Joliet.

Every 10 years, all of the county board seats are up for election. After voters render their decisions, the board will draw straws to determine who will serve two-year terms and who will get a four-year stretch.

With the staggered terms of office decided, half the board will be up for election every two years until the next Census.

County board members from District 1 include Judy Gilmour, Amy Cesich, Scott Gengler and Ruben Rodriguez, all of Yorkville and Brian DeBolt of Plano.

District 2 is represented by Scott Gryder, Robyn Vickers and Dan Koukol, all of Oswego, Matt Kellogg of Yorkville and Elizabeth Flowers of Montgomery.

Gryder currently serves as the county board chairman, a post which is voted upon by the board members. Now running for the Republican nomination for the 14th Congressional District seat, Gryder will not be a candidate for reelection to the county board.

County board candidates run with partisan political labels attached. Cesich, Flowers and Vickers are Democrats, while the other seven members are Republicans.

The winners will be the top five vote-getters in each district.