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Full Name: Lauren Staley Ferry
What office are you seeking? Will County Clerk - Incumbent
What offices, if any, have you previously held? Will County Clerk: 2018-Present Will County Board, District 9: 2014-2018
City: Born/Raised in Joliet. I currently live in Shorewood
Education: > Bachelor of Science - Business Management from Rasmussen University > High School Diploma - Joliet Catholic Academy > Grade School - St. Mary Nativity, Joliet
Campaign Website: www.lauren4clerk.com
What would be your top three priorities over the next four years?
I will continue the modernization initiatives in my Elections Division that I began during my first term. These include additional upgrades to our election equipment to ensure the most modern, efficient, and secure voting experience for Will County residents. These upgrades will supplement the sweeping, state-of-the-art automation program I implemented in my Vote By Mail Department during 2021-22 to address the skyrocketing interest in voting through the mail.
I will continue moving the training for our Election Judges online to ensure they have convenient access to world-class instruction so they are fully prepared to serve our voters each Election Day.
And I will continue to explore commonsense cost-saving initiatives, such as when I reduced the size of our Voter Registration Cards to slash costs for postage and paper by hundreds of thousands of dollars in the coming years; or when I created and in-house program to digitize our birth, marriage, and death records rather than spend taxpayer funds on costly contracts with outside vendors.
Taxes are a top concern raised by voters locally. What do you do within your position to address residents’ tax burden?
As I noted in my prior answer, I already have launched cost-saving initiatives on behalf of our taxpayers. Something as simple as my decision to reduce the size of our Voter Registration Cards will save an estimated $160,000 in postage alone over the course of two state-mandated mass mailings to registered voters. When the General Assembly passed laws requiring additional mass mailings during the pandemic, I consolidated multiple mailings to further save costs. The in-house program I created to digitize our birth, marriage, and death records ended a contract with an outside vendor that would have cost hundreds of thousands of dollars over the years. Instead, my team of clerical professionals are moving this important initiative forward at no additional expense to taxpayers. Finally, the investment in my Vote By Mail Automation Program will save $500,000 per election and pay for itself in two years if the surge in Vote By Mail requests continues. These are the kinds of cost-cutting initiatives I will continue to explore with my team each day.
What level of confidence do you think voters have in local elections? What is driving that confidence or lack thereof?
There are efforts across the nation to discredit how elections are conducted. I am fighting these self- serving and disingenuous efforts by increasing the level of transparency in our local elections process. I have opened the doors to my office to anyone who wants to observe the this process. Members of the public, poll watchers, and elected officials all have had access to my office at a level that is unprecedented in the history of Will County. I have published reports that outline procedures, costs, and challenges for every election that I have supervised in my first term. I have posted these reports on my website and have presented them personally to the Will County Board during public meetings. It is my firm belief that transparency and knowledge raise confidence in our elections.
In addition to elections, the county clerk’s office handles a myriad of duties. What do you bring to the table that your opponents do not?
I bring to the table experience, enthusiasm, integrity, and a track record of success from within the Will County Clerk’s Office. When I was first elected, I walked through the door with a knowledge of how business is conducted in the private sector as well as a complete understanding of how our local government functions based upon my County Board work. I adopted a broad view of my service as a County Board member, serving not only the residents of my district, but also building relationships and coalitions throughout Will County with elected officials on both sides of the aisle, community organizations, social service agencies, business professionals, and labor leaders. I brought this expansive view of service to the Will County Clerk’s Office and it enabled me to inspire my team of professionals to meet every challenge involved with successfully conducting three major elections during a world-wide pandemic. In my first term, I enhanced election security, improved our voter registration rolls, and modernized major areas of my Elections Division, including Vote By Mail and Voter Registration. I added Early Voting locations and increased the efficiency and security of my Vote By Mail Department so that citizens can choose how to cast their ballots with confidence. I also eliminated road blocks to accessing Will County Clerk’s Office services, making it easier for couples to receive marriage licenses and allowing people to use a credit card to pay for birth, marriage, or death certificates. And I launched a Student Ambassador Program to involve high school students in our local elections and foster a sense of civic duty in our young people. I am proudly running on my record of accomplishments and public service.