Thank you for supporting my campaign for Circuit Court Clerk. All the votes are in and the campaign was successful! I couldn't have done this without your support. Thank you for all those who attended an event, mailed friend to friend cards, hosted a yard sign or just voted on November 4, 2008. I will be posting the final numbers once the DuPage County Board of Election Commissioners certify the final election results. Until then the unofficial results can be found on the Dupage County Elections website.


I look forward to serving my second term as your DuPage County Circuit Court Clerk.


Thanks again,

Chris Kachiroubas

Chicago Tribune

DuPage County circuit clerk: Republican Christopher Kachiroubas has well-managed a complex office. He has expanded the office's electronic reach, including the ability to file online for orders of protection. He is endorsed over Democrat Stan Jagla of Roselle.

Daily Herald

DuPage circuit court clerk-
Incumbent Chris Kachiroubas of Elmhurst hit the ground running in his first term as clerk of one of the busiest court systems in the state. He implemented numerous initiatives, many of them to improve speed and efficiency of the court system to the general public. Improvements include electronic filing of court papers and allowing for the online filing of protection orders, a process that replaces a long and complicated form. He also has succeeded, through contracting with outside agencies, in collecting more than $6 million in unpaid fines and other debt. A Republican, Kachiroubas is endorsed. His challenger, Democrat Stan Jagla, argues that he needs to be elected to provide oversight to "abuses of power" by the Republicans who run the county. We find this argument somewhat tired and largely unfounded.

DuPage County recorder

It's one of the least glamorous offices in county government, but the recorder is responsible for keeping track of all county land documents, about $65 billion worth. The office also takes in $15 million annually through various fees imposed on real estate transactions. Republican incumbent Fred Bucholz is seeking his second term, but is well familiar with the office having served two decades as deputy recorder. In that time he overseen the complete automation of the office and has worked hard to address a main concern of the office in today's world: identity theft and mortgage fraud. His work has extended beyond DuPage, too, as he works on a system to standardize electronic delivery of documents throughout all 102 counties in Illinois. Bucholz makes a strong case for his re-election and is endorsed. His Democratic challenger, David Meek, a business consultant, is a thoughtful candidate who suggests a study on whether the recorder's office staff can be pared or reallocated, given the big drop-off in land transactions in the slowing economy. It is a good point that should be given its due by the current administration.

Forest Preserve board - District 1

Marsha Murphy of Addison is completing her first term as a commissioner for District 1, which includes much of northeastern DuPage. She is an enthusiastic commissioner with a love of open space and the need to protect it for future generations. Her priority, though, is keeping the forest preserve district's budget balanced, something all government officials should be mindful of these days. Murphy, a Republican, is endorsed, as her opponent, Democrat Michael Braun, also of Addison, seems a little hazy on what he'd like to accomplish with the district.

The Doings - Clarendon Hills
By SANDY ILLIAN BOSCH

DuPage County Circuit Court Clerk Chris Kachiroubas promises continued improvements if elected to another term this November, while opponent Stan Jagla says what DuPage needs is a change in leadership.

"We have dishonest government in DuPage County," said Jagla, a Roselle resident. "Somebody has to take the plunge."

Jagla considered plunging into a campaign to unseat Joe Birkett as state's attorney, but realized his four years of experience as his own counsel in civil court didn't qualify him as a candidate.

Instead, he's put his efforts into a campaign for circuit court clerk.

If elected Jagla said he will work to do away with waste and mismanagement. One way he would do that would be to eliminate county field courts.

"We have enough room in Wheaton," he said.

The self-employed Jagla said people aren't treated equally in DuPage. He said citizens need a simple, effective way to report rights violations and complaints against corrupt or abusive police officers. As clerk, he would work to provide those avenues.

Since taking over as circuit court clerk in 1991, Kachiroubas said he has made it easier for the general public to navigate through the circuit court system. He said he streamlined the office while doubling its space and established a help desk where a real person can answer real people's questions.

As clerk Kachiroubas helped to form a compliance unit that he said is responsible for collecting $6 million owed to the county in unpaid fines and fees going back 19 years. If elected to another term, Kachiroubas said he'll continue efforts to do away with the use of drivers licenses as bond for traffic tickets.

"We're the last state in the union that does this," he said.

He said the practice costs the county money and drivers a lot of inconvenience.

Ultimately, he would like to establish a system that allows drivers to pay their tickets with a credit or debit card at the time of the traffic stop. In the meantime, he will continue to expand the number of documents that are electronically filed by his office, a practice that began in 2004.

The Doings - Clarendon Hills

So long, 'crunchy, old yellow ticket' - E-Ticketing
Drivers who get pulled over for traffic violations may receive printed - not handwritten - tickets within the next year under a new electronic ticketing system unveiled Tuesday by local law enforcement agencies.
The new tickets will shorten the length of time it takes officers to issue a violation, eliminate data entry for local agencies and make it easy for drivers to read their tickets, said circuit court clerks from DuPage, Will, Kane, McHenry, Cook and DeKalb counties.
"Our goal is to do away with that crunchy, old yellow ticket," said Chris Kachiroubas, clerk of the DuPage County Circuit Court. "What you'll have is a printed-out version that you'll be able to read and bring on your court date and other people will be able to read it."
Officers driving cars equipped with the system have only to enter license plate and driver's license numbers into a laptop to kick off the E-ticket writing process, said Wheaton patrol officer Joe Dinas.
By automatically filling out driver information and offering a list of code violations from which officers can choose, the software reduces ticket-writing time from about 10 minutes to five or six minutes, Dinas said as he demonstrated the process at Safety Town next to the Naperville Police Department.
"This system is real nice because I can either look up the specific violation, or I can put in the speed and it automatically puts in the violation," Dinas said.
The E-tickets are instantly transmitted back to police departments, from where they can be sent to the county clerk for processing. The system eliminates about five processing steps from the police car to the circuit clerk, and another nine steps once the ticket lands in his office, Kachiroubas said.
All of the counties have purchased or are in the process of purchasing the software licensing from Advanced Public Safety - a company that provides applications for public safety agencies. Municipal agencies that choose to participate will be responsible for outfitting their own patrol cars with a printer, at a cost of $600 to $800 each.
Because his office is faced with processing 190,000 county, local and state tickets each year, Kachiroubas said receiving tickets as they are written will increase efficiency dramatically and save money spent on organizing paper tickets.
"We spend $90,000 on traffic files alone, so when you can remove those from the system you can save a lot of money," Kachiroubas said. "I can remove staff from trying to read and file electronic tickets and put them to other use."