Special election nearly complaint free

Saturday’s special congressional election prompted a few complaints, but nothing substantive, officials said today.

The Aurora Election Commission heard from voters unhappy about the election being on a Saturday, and from some residents at one retirement community who disliked campaign workers placing information on doors.

Overall, however, no problems with ballots or irregularities were reported, although some voters not in the 14th Congressional District wondered why their polling places were not open, the Election Commission said.

Democrat Bill Foster defeated Republican Jim Oberweis by about 5,000 votes in the special election to fill out the term of retired Rep. Dennis Hastert. Foster was sworn in Tuesday as the nation’s newest congressman.

As it has done recently, the Kane County state’s attorneys office set up an election hotline for voters to report problems. Although the office did not specify the number of calls received Saturday, none were considered to be serious, the state’s attorney’s office said.

In the February primary election, the state’s attorney and Election Commission handled numerous calls about everything from improper ballots to electioneering.