Josh Tanner for County Clerk 2022

You can listen to the interview with Josh Tanner on Youtube, from which this is written.

Elections

Tanner's top priority is elections - recruit election judges, keep up with new rules from the state, and keep election equipment secure & up to date. He says the 2020 election was difficult because of COVID. Older election judges didn't feel safe, so a lot of new election judges had to be recruited and trained. There was a significant increase in votes by mail, which required even more election judges and adequate space to process ballots. He says it was an accomplishment of Macon County more than of himself, requiring help from election judges, both parties, other folks in the building, and voters.

Tanner says "Election judges are the front line of election security," so training is really important. He worries "about misinformation more than anything else," and shares info on Facebook about security measures and election processes. The County gets help with election cyber-security from Homeland Security, IL State Board of Elections, and IL State Police. He says it is "safe and secure to vote by mail", and mentions that we've been voting by mail with overseas citizens and military personnel for a long time. He says we have have good processes in place.

Document Storage & Retention

Tanner's second priority is document storage and retention. He's been working on this project since 2018, and it is ongoing. They temporarily moved records so the Public Building Commission could renovate their storage room with more climate control, improved ventilation, improved lighting, and updated storage devices. "I was pretty proud of that," he said. He added that it is "not something that the previous clerk was doing wrong", just that it was an improvement that needed to be made.

Tanner is working to digitize old records, like birth, marriage, and death certificates. He says care needs to be taken when handling these old documents. He also wants to continue destroying old records that the state allows them to destroy.

Training Staff

Tanner's third priority is training staff. He says "if [a new County Clerk] were to come in, they would be able to rely on the staff to do what they do on a regular basis. There are some things that I do pretty much myself, so I'm trying to get that training down to other people." Employee turnover adds a challenge to training the staff. And he says it's hard to train staff on some historical knowledge he has from his deep background with local government, and it's hard to train on tasks that only come through once or twice a year.

Tanner says "the county doesn't pay a fabulous amount," though adds that the County Board gave "pretty generous wages for this four year contract," in the contract negotiations between the County Board and the local union. Tanner says there are a lot of job opportunities right now, so turnover is an issue, meaning new staff has to be trained anytime someone leaves for another opportunity.

Partisanship

County Clerk is largely an administrative position, not a legislative one, yet the position is filled through our partisan elections. Josh Tanner says "The state set up the county forms of government quite awhile ago," and "It is the way it is, so you gotta pick one side or the other and then run for office if you'd like to be the clerk." He spoke well of Steve Bean, the Democratic County Clerk who preceded Tanner.

He says the primary difference between Clerks would be in personal style and that party would have little to do with it. He says "If you can't put [politics] aside and in your work life be very non-partisan, you're going to struggle with the job." He adds that "[Steve Bean] and I have talked before about, sometimes, out of an over-abundance of caution, you tend to favor the opposite party of yourself just so there's no perception that you're giving favoritism to your own party, so sometimes your own party may feel slighted because you tend to be more accomodating to the opposite party just so there's no perception that there's favoritism."

Two of the primary differences between Tanner and another clerk might be involvement in the tax extension process and in Graphical Information Systems (GIS, mapping) related tasks, since Tanner worked as Supervisor of Assessments for the County for 6 years and served in GIS with IDOR (IL Dept of Revenue) prior to that. A new Clerk may have a background and experience in different elements of the Clerk's office, so their style and involvement with certain duties may be different.

2021 Redistricting

Tanner propsed a district map for the 2021 redistricting, so there would be some option in the event of a partisan deadlock. The Republican majority on the County Board wanted to reduce the county to 5 districts and 15 County Board members from 7 districts and 21 County Board Members. Tanner proposed a 7 district map and says "I didn't bring in which way does this district vote, and which way does that district vote, or where are these voters, or where are those voters" and "The only information that I brought in was the population data" and "It was just a matter of making the fewest number of changes in order to comply with the law."

Democratic Board Members supported Tanner's 7 district map. Dem Board members also proposed their own 7 district map. Republicans proposed two 5 district maps, and the Republican Majority ultimately voted for one of their own 5 district maps. You can read more about the redistricting.

Legislative Process

The Clerk keeps records, digitizes them, and takes & counts votes at County Board meetings. Tanner says Board Members will sometimes ask his opinion, primarily about historical background or technical details regarding proposals. Tanner says "I don't have anything to do with [political advocacy]," though he may bring forward resolutions or bills that involve his office, such as for new software, or a contract, or certain administrative decisions that require Board approval.

Tanner says the County Board sets fees for his office and that "fees basically support most of my office." He says he has not recommended any fee changes, but if he did in the future it would be to accomodate increased costs for running the office. He says there haven't really been any increased expenses outside of contractual employee raises.

Tanner is a member of the Illinois Association of County Clerks, and is the president of our zone. He says there are four zones in the state. The association meets to discuss issues and to "commiserate with one other when things aren't going well, just as any other association would do." He says it is not a partisan organization and is open to all clerks & recorders. Tanner serves on their legislative committee.

As far as legislative advocacy, Tanner says "we advocate for changes to the law with regard to our offices and it is generally geared around technical changes" and "we try to inform the General Assembly on how that will impact on the ground. So we don't advocate for doing or not doing certain policies. We try to advocate for 'this is the best way to do what you're trying to do'" and that they'll advocate for language cleanup when a bill is unclear.

The Association also provides training to new clerks and its members serve as mentors and guides to one another. Tanner says other clerks will reach out to him for guidance and he will do the same, especially when peculiar issues arise that he hasn't encountered before.

Voter ID Laws

I asked Josh Tanner what he thinks of voter ID laws, requiring a state ID or driver's license to vote and Tanner said that's "one of the things that our association and all of the clerks steer away from" because the General Assembly sets the laws and "we defer to them on that". He says "we're a signature state," so "we match your signature," and "[your signature is] basically your form of id".

Tanner explains that there are some issues every year, whether a husband/wife signs their partner's ballot, or someone's signature changes due to medical issues, or people not updating their registration when they move, especially folks in apartments or student housing who move to a different unit in the same housing complex. When there are issues, the Clerk's office will mail out a notice, but Macon County election judges also call voters to have them come in and correct their ballots in a more timely manner.

2020 Election Fraud Allegations

Tanner says "I feel like Joe Biden is the President of the United States. There were objections. I didn't follow all of the minutiae. I will tell you in Macon County and in every other county in the United States, there are always election irregularities. There are always a few people who double vote either intentionally or unintentionally. There are always people who get the wrong ballot. That's usually unintentional. There are people who vote in the wrong polling place. There are people who vote from an address they're not registered at any more. Most of these things are either the voter's ignorance of the law or they just don't want to bother to re-register." He adds "It's my understanding that none of those [legal] objections were upheld and so Joe Biden's the President of the United States. "

Future Political Plans

Tanner says "I'm an administrator, not a legislator," and has no plans to run for state offices. He said if he loses the County Clerk election he may run for School Board or Library Board to serve the community. He says "I like the way [county government] works with the public" and "There's some friendships there and it's the same way with the officeholders and a lot of the employees here and that's kind of what I like about working at the county." He adds that the County Board members often form friendships across the partisan divide and that the public doesn't often see that.