Title
Resolution thanking George Kerkhove for his years of service to the Lake County Clerk’s Office and to the election judges of Lake County.
Body
WHEREAS , George F. Kerkhove of Green Oaks has served Lake County as an Election Judge in his home precinct Libertyville 167 since his retirement as a certified public accountant and has consistently exhibited great care to deliver quality service, exceptional accuracy and a positive experience to the voters he served;
WHEREAS, George Kerkhove’s interest in and commitment to the electoral process and concern for the individual voter’s rights resulted in his thoughtful written report of his first election judge experience and suggestions on areas for training or emphasis;
WHEREAS, George Kerkhove was invited to complete additional training as a Ballot Box Judge, Field Representative and Site Manager, and he accepted these requests and provided a reliable replacement judge for his precinct by recruiting his wife Linda who has served admirably in precinct 167;
WHEREAS, George Kerkhove energetically assisted with on-going comprehensive efforts to enhance equality and accessibility to voting, and he greatly aided the Lake County Clerk’s office in providing excellent service to voters and recruited friends and colleagues from his church to serve as roving Technical Representatives as optical scan voting was introduced;
WHEREAS, George Kerkhove with great skill and patience assisted other Election Judges and all voters, and agreed to become a training instructor for introductory training classes for new Election Judges in Lake County, and he has taught or worked alongside nearly half of Lake County’s thousands of election workers and aided in training other Election Judge training instructors and build a comprehensive hands-on segment for the new judges;
WHEREAS, George Kerkhove has introduced elections to many hundreds of high school student Election Judges and prepared them to understand election laws, security procedures, and civics in a hands-on environment, as well as these invigorated high school student to be lifelong voters and participants.
WHEREAS, George Kerkhove assisted the Lake County Clerk’s office as a beta tester for the “decision technology” developed for laptop computers in each voting site and tested on-line review training for election workers use in testing their knowledge prior to each election;
WHEREAS, George and Linda Kerkhove are moving westward to Denver, Colorado to be near family and enjoy the mountain vistas, and we are losing a very special friend and leader. Many organizations have benefited from George Kerkhove’s time, talent and commitment, including Advocate Condell Medical Center and Holy Cross Lutheran Church, but the voters and officials in Lake County owe a great indebtedness for his role in ensuring fair, accurate and timely elections.
NOW THEREFORE, Be It Resolved by the Lake County Board that GEORGE F. KERKHOVE of Green Oaks, Illinois be congratulated for his extraordinary and unselfish contributions to Lake County’s electoral process, and may the road to Denver be safely traveled and full of beautiful sunrises and sunsets.
DATED at WAUKEGAN, LAKE COUNTY, ILLINOIS the 10th day of August, A.D. 2010.