Republican poll watcher Bob Sperlazzo lives in Carpentersville, a hot spot in the nation’s debate over undocumented immigrants. Sperlazzo says one reason he became a poll watcher was to help make sure no illegal aliens are voting in Kane County elections. He saw that with his own eyes, he says, in municipal balloting last April.

SPERLAZZO: When those people came in to vote, I was sitting there with my book in my hand that said, ‘This person lived in this house that was empty,’ or, ‘This person basically was not registered to vote but here they are.’ We are, the citizens are basically having their process of government undermined by citizens of foreign countries coming in and changing the election results.

Kane County officials say they have no hard evidence undocumented immigrants have committed voter fraud.

And Elva Mejía is ticked off about this kind of scrutiny of Latinos at the polls. This week Mejía helped the county launch early voting for the February 5 primaries. She’s at St. Monica’s, the biggest church in Carpentersville, one of several balloting sites.

ambi: She’ll help you…

Mejía is helping a 36-year-old from El Salvador who’s struggling with an electronic voting machine.

MEJIA: If I wasn’t here, we would lose a vote. And their vote won’t count. And were stressing as the Hispanic community that your vote will count.

Mejía became an election judge after eye-opening experiences as a 2006 poll watcher for an immigrant rights group. Several precincts in heavily Latino areas opened hours late. Many lacked bilingual judges. And Mejía says one judge scolded a voter for bringing his daughter to the booth to help interpret.

MEJIA: How can so many precincts have a problem? If it’s not racial, why did Carpentersville have this many problems?

At the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Ricardo Meza was asking himself the same question. Before last April’s election, he alerted the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice.

MEZA: Just because an individual doesn’t speak English very well or maybe at all does not mean that that person is not a U.S. citizen, does not mean that that person is not properly registered. It is the job of the clerk’s office to make certain that those attitudes and those stereotypes are not in place when folks come in to vote.

What happened next caught Kane County Clerk John Cunningham off guard.

CUNNINGHAM: Because I felt very well there’s been substantial compliance in Kane County because even before I came here they had already translated all of the election documents, even our insert into the papers, from English to Spanish to accommodate that particular law.

That’s the federal Voting Rights Act.

CUNNINGHAM: And so the attorney general’s office sent two people into our office to sit down to ask us if it would be alright if they would monitor that election up there. So they were up there and the election was over and I called their office and they said, ‘Talk to your lawyer.’ So at that time I knew there was an issue.

The Department of Justice filed its suit in September. This kind of enforcement is on the rise. Since 2002, the feds have brought 26 lawsuits nationwide to protect Spanish-speaking voters.

Kane County didn’t admit liability, but quickly signed a 14-page agreement. It promised to provide 71 bilingual election judges. But, less than three weeks before the election, the county has signed up just 54.

TIMM: Why don’t you all just kind of crowd around this board that I’ve got up here. I want to go over this dual election thing one more time.

And many of the judges still have to go through this three-hour session with part-time county elections trainer George Timm.

And that’s not all. To make the voting process more accessible, the Department of Justice also forced Kane County to appoint a Spanish-language election coordinator and a Hispanic advisory committee.

RAMIREZ SLIWINSKI: It hasn’t made a difference.

Linda Ramírez Sliwinski of Carpentersville serves on that committee.

RAMIREZ SLIWINSKI: They don’t want the Latinos coming out to vote. The last meeting was actually cancelled. They’re still short Hispanic election judges or bilingual election judges. As far as I know, they have no translators. Jack is just going through the motions.

Jack is the nickname of Cunningham, the Kane County clerk. For his part, Cunningham says his office will post bilingual election judges wherever they’re needed February 5. He says everyone’s who’s eligible to vote will get to cast a ballot.