The Stephenson County’s Clerk’s advice for folks concerned about the upcoming elections is to reach out to her.
“When you hear something regarding elections, call our office first,” said Jazmin Wingert. “We want to be the first person that you talk to, so we can give you the facts about what is going on.”
Wingert said, when addressing misinformation, she combats it with the truth.
“I think social media can be a tool, but also, we have to get the facts straight,” she said. “We see it all the time that if you see a myth on social media -- to correct it with the fact.”
Some prominent Republican leaders, including former President Donald Trump, have been peddling an unwarranted fear that noncitizens and newly arrived immigrant, will be voting this election.
But this is false, since the law only allows citizens to vote and there are safeguards in place to ensure that only eligible voters cast ballots and their vote is counted only once. WNIJ and other news outlets have previously reported that cases of election fraud are very rare.
Wingert said she’s heard many rumors and concerns, especially regarding the integrity of “vote by mail,” which has become a popular voting option nationwide.
‘‘‘Jazmin, what happens if I put my vote by mail into the ballot box and then I come into her office, and I tried to vote?’’’ she recalled being asked. ‘‘‘What happens in that case? Am I going to get to vote twice?’ Absolutely not.”
She said when a voter casts a ballot in person, they’ll sign an affidavit for the ballot and the staff will record the manner in which the person voted.
“If they came into our office, and they did sign that affidavit and they voted, that would be marked, and when we went to process the vote by mail ballot, it would show that they had already voted.”
This is the 24-year old’s first time running a general election. She won the seat of county clerk in 2022. She’s the youngest person to hold the position in Stephenson County’s history. It was previously held by Vici Otte, who retired after holding the seat for over 20 years.
Wingert grew up on her family’s dairy farm in Kent and studied agriculture business at the University of Wisconsin at Platteville. She previously worked for the Union Pacific Railroad. She is currently the secretary for the county’s Republican Party.
“At a young age, I've always been involved in different organizations, high school, and then college, but I was involved in our local party,” she said, “so, that has always been important to me.”
Applying for outside funding has been one of her priorities while in office, and she’s gotten positive results. The office was awarded funding to purchase voting booths that are wheelchair accessible. Other funding has allowed them to increase election security and update their voting lists more efficiently.
Preparation for the upcoming election
Election day is November 5, but voters can cast their ballot sooner with early voting. That begins on September 26. There’s also the option of voting by mail.
Preparation for the voting season is already underway.
“We have 36 precincts and 22 polling locations,” Wingert said. “So, preparing for the upcoming elections includes “coordinating those polling locations as well and working and training election judges.”
Election Judges
Election judges prep and open and close the election polls. They essentially make sure that voters are treated fairly and administer the elections according to the law.
“So, it's a long day for the election judges,” she said, “but it's an extremely vital piece in the election process.”
She said the office is working on recruiting a younger generation of judges, including high school juniors and seniors.
"People say get out and vote and I can encourage people to get out and vote,” she said. “But I also encourage people to become an election judge.”
In addition to preparing for the elections, an ongoing project is the digitization of county records, including some that go back to 1837.
“These records are extremely important,” she said. “You never know when some kind of weather can take these records away. And it's important to me to preserve these records for the next hundreds of years.”
The images have been digitized. She said the next step is indexing each item and making them accessible online.
Interested in becoming an election judge?
Call the Stephenson County’s County Clerk’s Office at 815-235-8289 or email coclerk@stephensoncountyil.gov or contact your local county clerk to learn how you can be an election judge in your area.
