(The Center Square) – DuPage County board members are questioning increased spending by the county clerk’s office, after the clerk said the board underfunded elections by nearly $2.5 million.
Clerk Jean Kaczmarek wrote in a letter on August 18 that board chair Deborah Conroy knowingly chose to ignore her office’s itemized list of elections expenses.
“Either give my office the money to run a gold-standard election or don’t. Stop playing games,” Kaczmarek said.
The board held a special call meeting Tuesday to appropriate an additional $665,000 for postage and printing costs related to mail-in ballots for the clerk’s election division.
Board member Kari Galassi questioned chief deputy clerk Adam Johnson.
“Why, if you were appropriated a certain amount of dollars for postage, did you spend 99% of that on a primary election, knowing full well there was also a general election?” Galassi asked.
Johnson said the office itemized its projected expenses over a year ago, and it exceeded the board’s budget appropriations.
Board member Cindy Cronin Cahill said $277,050 was budgeted for election division postage costs this year, up from $92,000 for the last gubernatorial election in 2022.
Conroy said the printing appropriation of $474,700 for fiscal year 2026 represented a 15% increase over the $351,126 spent in fiscal year 2022.
Before the board approved the additional $665,000 in specific line items for postage and printing, Johnson told Cahill that more funds would be needed.
“On the amount of money that’s appropriated to our office, no, we do not have enough money to have an election to the standard we’ve had in the past,” Johnson said.
Johnson was asked for a total amount.
“I would estimate somewhere in the range of an additional $1.2 million…” Johnson said before Conroy interrupted.
“Okay, you want $1.2 million in a blank check. That will never happen,” Conroy said.
Several board members indicated they would hold their noses while voting for the additional appropriation.
When Galassi asked if it might be possible to remove the election division from the clerk’s office, Conroy said it could not be done during the special meeting but expressed hope that the clerk’s office would be better run after Kaczmarek’s term ends.
Kaczmarek lost to fellow Democrat Paula Deacon Garcia in the primary election last March. Garcia will face Republican Patricia Kladis-Schiappa in the general election Nov. 3.
