Pete Jansons, founder and host of the Lake Forest Podcast, said the widely criticized push by some Democrat officials to warn about or restrict U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) near polling places sets a troubling precedent for election administration.
He added that it raises serious questions about the role of partisan politics in offices that are supposed to serve as neutral referees.
“While this specific controversy is centered in DuPage, the precedent of a County Clerk — the literal gatekeeper of local democracy — using their office for political activism is something every voter in Lake County and the North Shore should be watching,” Jansons told the Lake County Gazette. “If the neutral referee disappears in one county, regional trust in elections weakens for all of us.”
Several Democrat-led states have been advancing legislation to restrict or ban federal immigration enforcement near polling places, citing concerns about potential federal overreach in elections. Existing federal law already limits armed personnel at voting sites, and the Department of Homeland Security has stated there are no plans to deploy ICE to the polls, according to Stateline.
When questioned before Congress, ICE and Border Patrol leaders replied, “No, sir,” and DHS election integrity official Heather Honey stated, “It is simply not true” that agents would be stationed at the polls.
As the March 17 primary approached, DuPage County Clerk Jean Kaczmarek issued a video warning that ICE would not be permitted to interfere with DuPage County elections in any way, stating: “In DuPage County, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), will not be allowed to interfere with DuPage County elections in any way.”
She followed with a press release declaring “ICE, go away. Do not even try. You will fail,” dismissing as a myth the notion that non-citizens cast ballots on Election Day.
Kaczmarek also set up a hotline for residents to report ICE sightings and noted the county allows voters to cast ballots at any of its 248 polling locations through its “Vote Anywhere” system.
Jansons said his initial reaction to Kaczmarek’s moves was simply to question what problem was actually being solved.
“My first reaction was: why?” he said. “If non-citizens aren’t voting — and officials insist they aren’t — it’s not clear who is being directly affected at the polls. Setting up a hotline to report federal agents feels more political than administrative. County clerks are supposed to be neutral referees. This doesn’t read as neutral. My approach to these issues is to look at what’s actually documented versus what’s being asserted, regardless of which side is making the claim. Both overreaction and underreaction can damage public trust — and this felt like an overreaction in search of a problem.”
In Chicago, Mayor Brandon Johnson backed a proposal to create “Democracy Zones” banning immigration enforcement within 100 feet of polling sites. Opponents, including 15th Ward Alderman Ray Lopez, said the effort was one that “seeks an answer to a problem that doesn’t exist” and raised potential First Amendment concerns.
“As much as the extreme Democratic Left and Socialists decried President Trump’s election loss conspiracies, they have proven no better,” Lopez told Chicago City Wire. “Actually, the Democratic logic is worse as it appears to build on the allegations of non-citizens participating in our American electoral process and needing protection from deportation.”
Social media critics echoed the skepticism.
“If illegals are not voting, then why would anyone care if ICE is near a polling place?” Libs of TikTok said on X.
Jansons said the pattern of officials getting ahead of undemonstrated problems is familiar from a Lake County perspective.
“North Shore and Lake County officials have generally been more measured, but the broader pattern is familiar — officials getting ahead of a problem that, by their own admission, hasn’t been demonstrated,” he said. “From a Lake County perspective, it reads as likely to resonate with a political base rather than address a real operational concern.”
Jansons said the evidence points to political motivation, even as he acknowledged the concerns of those on the other side.
“Based on what’s publicly known, this appears politically motivated,” he said. “Federal officials — including ICE and Border Patrol leadership — have publicly said they had no plans to deploy agents at polling locations. Supporters would argue this is about preventing voter intimidation, and that concern deserves to be taken seriously. But when you’re solving a problem that hasn’t been demonstrated, you have to ask what you’re actually trying to accomplish. In an election year, that question inevitably raises political concerns.”
Jansons said the legal arguments being made to support the effort deserve serious scrutiny.
“I’m not a constitutional lawyer, but stretching statutes intended to prevent military interference to block routine civilian law enforcement has been criticized by some legal commentators as a stretch,” he said. “It suggests the legal theory was built to support a political goal, not the other way around. That deserves serious scrutiny, not a press release.”
Jansons said the gap between official rhetoric and documented facts speaks for itself.
“It’s the most straightforward explanation available,” he said. “When rhetoric outpaces the facts — and federal officials have publicly said no deployment was planned — the gap between what’s being said and what’s actually happening tells you something. It suggests these statements may be aimed as much at public perception as at federal agencies.”
Former GOP committeeman Terry Newsome flagged a registration error in DuPage County that nearly prevented him from voting, after all five members of his household had their last names entered incorrectly in the voter database as “Updatesome” instead of Newsome.
Jansons said the Newsome case points to a deeper data quality problem in election administration.
“If accurately reported, five members of one household all entered incorrectly in the voter database suggests a serious data quality problem — not a typo,” he said. “In any modern database operation, five records in the same household corrupted the same way isn’t random error — that points to a potential process failure. That’s particularly striking when it occurs in an office that has made election integrity part of its public messaging. If you want people to trust the system, the system has to work. Errors like that erode confidence in ways no press release can repair.”
Kaczmarek’s office has drawn criticism beyond her ICE warnings. Former state representative Jeanne Ives called her “completely incompetent,” while election integrity advocate Carol Davis said Kaczmarek is “throwing red meat to the Democrat base because she is in jeopardy of losing her seat as county clerk.”
In 2025, the DuPage County Board censured Kaczmarek’s office over financial mismanagement, including delayed vendor payments, a budget shortfall, and a 40% increase in staff salaries over five years.
She is also currently under criminal investigation by the Illinois Attorney General’s Office for allegations including no-bid contracts totaling roughly $229,000 and mismanagement of election-related spending.
Kaczmarek was defeated in the March 17 Democratic primary by Paula Deacon Garcia, who received 54,761 votes compared to Kaczmarek’s 42,670, based on unofficial results with all precincts reporting.
Garcia will advance to the November general election against Republican Patricia Kladis-Schiappa, who ran unopposed in the GOP primary.
Jansons said the most serious consequence of Kaczmarek’s actions is the damage done to the public trust that election officials uniquely hold.
“Arguably the most serious consequence here,” he said. “Election officials hold a unique public trust. The moment a clerk risks being perceived as a partisan actor — whether real or perceived — every decision their office makes comes under a cloud. You can’t credibly referee a game you’ve picked a side in. From the outside, when an office is already navigating reports of controversy and potential investigations, adding a high-profile political stunt only further distracts from the core mission of running clean elections.”
Jansons is an entrepreneur, founder of Neuronoodle, and co-host of The Lake Forest Podcast. He has a background in neuroscience and hosts discussions with residents and leaders on topics ranging from city government to culture and business.
The Lake Forest Podcast is a weekly show covering Lake Forest community issues, politics and conversations in and around Lake Forest.
