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New: U.S. to monitor Carpentersville election

April 16, 2007
BY STEVE LORD Staff Writer

Representatives of the U.S. Department of Justice and the Kane County State’s Attorney’s office will be watching balloting in Carpentersville Tuesday.

The officials will be watching for any election irregularities in the Carpentersville city election, where six candidates are vying for three council seats in a race that has been dominated by an argument over illegal immigration.

“They don’t want it to get crazy,” said Jay Bennett, deputy county clerk. “They want to make sure nobody is stopping anybody from voting.”

The race for Carpentersville council has been dominated by the Illegal Alien Immigration Relief Act, proposed last year by councilmen Judy Sigwalt and Paul Humpfer. The proposed ordinance would let the city fine landlords who rent to illegal immigrants, and deny licenses to business which employ illegals.

A vote on the proposal was delayed, in part due to intense local protest and in part due to waiting to see if a similar ordinance withstands legal challenges in Pennsylvania.

Sigwalt and Humpfer are up for re-election, and a third candidate, Keith Hinz, a challenger, is supporting the ordinance with them. Incumbent Jim Frost and newcomers Sherry Dobson and Laura Zambrano oppose the ordinance.

Bennett said the Justice Department was called by an Hispanic rights organization to watch the polling. The Kane County clerk’s office asked the state’s attorney’s office to be involved.