Prochaska heading for reelection in Kendall County Circuit Clerk race

With 78 of 78 precincts reporting, Kendall County Circuit Clerk Matt Prochaska is heading towards reelection. Unofficial results give the Republican 48% of the vote, followed by Democrat Tiara McCullough with 41% and Bob Allen of the Kendall County Party with just shy of 11%.

The circuit clerk’s responsibilities are to ensure the county’s court system runs efficiently by maintaining and preserving official records of the court and providing transparency and accessibility to online users.

During his first term, beginning in December 2020, Prochaska expanded online access to court records, citation and filing services. The online programs are used by attorneys, police and the public to file documents, pay fines and access case information.

Following the election, Prochaska thanked his supporters.

“This past campaign season has been a lot of hard work, not only by myself, but by my friends, family, and volunteers to push the message of what we’ve been doing in the clerk’s office,” Prochaska said. “I cannot speak highly enough of my staff at the circuit clerk’s office. They’ve done an amazing job with some of the technology changes we’ve been implementing to help make records more accessible for both attorneys and the public.”

Prochaska’s team also created a courthouse app to help keep the public and staff up to date on courtroom changes and a text notifying program to alert people of their upcoming court dates.

Prior to serving as circuit clerk, Prochaska served as a Kendall County Board Member for eight years, chairman of the Kendall Housing Authority for 13 years, and vice president of the Kendall County Forest Preserve for eight years.

Prochaska said he will prioritize maintaining efficiency as the county faces large population growth. He said increases in cases could lead to delays and a backlog in the court system. To address this issue, Prochaska said he will continue expanding digital services and utilizing AI tech for public interactions and for processing files with greater expediency.

“We are starting to work with artificial intelligence and I am really looking forward to seeing how this technology develops and how it can start working in our court system,” Prochaska said.

Prochaska said he supports investing in staff training to ensure their services continue to meet the demands of the growing population.

McCullough, the Democratic challenger is a self-employed travel advisor based in Yorkville. She thought the votes cast for Robert “Bob” Allen hurt her chances at winning.

“My question is what were the voters thinking as far as what Robert Allen could have provided for the county verses Tiara McCullough,” McCullough said. “It’s not discouraging for me at all. It empowers me, seeing that I was in the right place at the right time, running for the right thing.”

Her platform focused on increasing accessibility of records and services through the use of updated technology. McCullough proposed working with the Kendall County Board to help secure funding to maintain operations and provide new training for all court employees.

Allen, the Kendall County Party’s candidate, previously served on the Yorkville City Council and was the Yorkville City Treasurer.

His platform focused on combatting what he called the overreach of the Republican Party, which he accused of targeting their political opponents within the county.

“I’m disappointed that I didn’t win, but it’s impressive the number of people that came out to support me and I’d like to thank them,” Allen said. “If you look at the results of the election, there’s a lot of people out there who are concerned about the extremism going on, the polarization right now between the two parties and the importance of having independent voices.”

The winner for Kendall County Circuit Clerk is elected to a four-year term.