Kane County Clerk Jack Cunningham looks to a sixth term in office

Kane County Clerk John “Jack” Cunningham could be headed for a sixth term in office Tuesday night after facing a challenge from Democrat Nicolas Jimenez.

According to unofficial results late Tuesday, Cunningham received 82,756 votes and Jimenez received 69,569 votes.

Cunningham has been the clerk since 2002 and a Republican committeeman since 1960. In a Shaw Local News Network’s candidate questionnaire sent to all candidates, he said that he is proud of the work his office did to improve voter access.

“Our in-person early voting program is one of, if not the largest, among the surrounding counties with 25 early voting sites throughout the county,” Cunningham said. “Voters can go to any early voting center in the county, whether it is close to their home, work, or school to vote early. More than 100,000 early in person votes were cast in the Nov. 2020 election, even more than the number of votes cast by mail.”

Jimenez, a quality assurance manager for a candy company, said it’s the current political climate that has led to an increase in voting, not the voter outreach efforts by the clerk’s office.

“My belief is that the current program does not engage with people enough to have any substantive effect,” he said.

He added he would use community events, forums, town halls and social media to get voters involved in elections. He said he also would work to improve election security and upgrade to a paper ballot and optical scan voting system.

The Kane County Chronicle will be updating all election returns throughout the night. Check back frequently for updates.