November 15, 2024
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Update: Will County Clerk Staley Ferry keeps lead

Fritz narrows lead but not enough

By Bob Okon
Election 2024
Will County Clerk Lauren Staley Ferry, who is running for re-election, makes her rounds at the Will County office on midterm election night on Tuesday.

Will County Clerk Lauren Staley Ferry seen at the clerk's office on Tuesday as votes were counted in her election and others. (Gary Middendorf - gmiddendorf@shawmedia.com/Gary Middendorf)

Will County Clerk Lauren Staley Ferry held onto a lead that narrowed through the night in a contest with challenger Gretchen Fritz.

Staley-Ferry had 52% of the vote with all precincts counted as of 10 p.m. Tuesday.

The incumbent clerk, a Democrat, had 116,619 votes. Fritz, a Republican member of the Will County Board from Plainfield, had 106,915 votes.

“I’m just super excited and so proud of my staff,” Staley Ferry said after the vote count on Tuesday. “We make a good team. We worked super hard the last four years.”

Staley Ferry is completing a first term in which the county clerk had to adapt elections to COVID-19 pandemic conditions. Her campaign emphasized a successful track record in three pandemic elections as voters increasingly turned to mail-in ballots and early voting.

Gretchen Fritz, Will County Clerk candidate

Will County Board Member Gretchen Fritz challenged incumbent , Will County Clerk Lauren Staley Ferry. (Provided by Gretchen Fritz, Will County Clerk candidate)

Fritz said her primary goal was to clean up voting rolls to guard against potential fraud..

Fritz said she wanted to ensure that anyone who had moved out of the county was no longer registered to vote in Will County, as well as clear the rolls of any deceased voters.

Staley Ferry said her goal if reelected was to continue modernization of the clerk’s office.

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