Staley-Ferry faces Fritz in election for Will County clerk

Lauren Staley-Ferry is seeking her second term as Will County Clerk, and Gretchen Fritz is trying to replace her.

Fritz, a Republican Will County Board member from Plainfield, said one of her top goals is to clean up voter rolls to make sure no one deceased or moved out of Will County is registered to vote in the county.

Staley-Ferry, a Democrat, said she plans to continue updates in the office that proved themselves in elections during the COVID-19 pandemic as numbers expanded for mail-in voting and early in-person voting.

“[COVID-19] hit pretty quickly after I was elected,” Staley-Ferry said. “Running three elections was a big undertaking, and we had three successful elections.”

Fritz said there is room for improvement, particularly when it comes to the rolls of registered voters.

“One of the things I’m really focused on is cleaning up the voter rolls,” Fritz said. “I think it’s very important to make sure there are no dead people on the voter rolls and that there are no people who don’t live in Will County.”

She did not point to any fraudulent voting but said outdated registrations could be misused for fraud.

Fritz said her master’s degree in library and information science would serve her well if elected to be county clerk. In addition to being a county board member, Fritz is an office administrator with Edward Jones, a freelance writer and editor, and a producer with On Target Radio.

Staley-Ferry, like Fritz, was a County Board member before running for county clerk. She has a bachelor’s degree in business management and lives in Shorewood.

She cites modernization of the office as among accomplishments of the past four years and an ongoing task if reelected.

“The goal will continue to be security for our elections,” Staley-Ferry said. “Our voting equipment is old, and we will be looking to see what we can do about that.”

Staley-Ferry said her office proved it was up to new challenges when it adapted to the COVID-19 pandemic procedures to ensure people could vote in ways other than going to the polling place on Election Day.

“We felt everyone needed to be sure they could cast a ballot,” she said, noting the expanded use of mail-in voting during the pandemic. “Vote by mail is here to stay and continues to grow.”

The campaign for county clerk produced at least one clash between the two candidates.

Fritz filed an election complaint over Staley-Ferry’s name appearing within view of voters as they came into the county clerk’s office for in-person early voting. A table cloth spread over a table in the voting area also contained Staley-Ferry’s picture.

“She was forced to take it down,” said Fritz, contending the clerk was violating an election law that bars candidates from posting their names within a set distance from the spot where voters vote.

Staley-Ferry said she was not forced to remove the table cloth and her name from other signs normally posted at her office. But she did also to oblige Fritz.

“We had the state’s attorney’s opinion and the state board of elections as well that that was OK,” said Staley-Ferry, noting that other office holders have their names posted at their offices and that her practice was not different from her predecessor.

Information about the two candidates can be found in their responses to questionnaire’s in the Election Central section on the Herald-News website.