LETTER: Josh Boies wants your vote for county circuit clerk

Editor: My name is Josh Boies, Democratic candidate for DeKalb County Circuit Clerk, and I ask for your vote on Nov. 4. During the past week, my 24-year Republican incumbent opponent implemented the program E-pay. This is very exciting for the people of DeKalb County and I congratulate her on finally making it possible for the people of DeKalb County to make online payments for court fines. However, I think it is fair to say this is long overdue. Most businesses, government agencies, and circuit clerk offices throughout the state and the country have had the ability to do this for many years. I personally have been advocating for this prior to and since the announcement of my candidacy last November. The conspicuous timing of this implementation - 12 weeks prior to her first challenged election this century - could leave a voter to ask if it was politically motivated. Regardless, it truly is a great first step to modernizing this office. But there is so much more we can and need to do to catch up with other counties. Scanned court documents, electronic access to court records over the Internet, online filing of cases, in-house media servers hosting audio and video files that could be streamed to courtrooms. The list goes on and on. This job truly requires a familiarity and passion for technology that I possess and my opponent lacks. The job has changed over the past 24 years and we need to keep up. Should you elect me as your next circuit clerk, I will work tirelessly and with fiscal responsibility to make our DeKalb County Circuit Clerk's Office an innovator and leader in county government of which we can all be proud. Thank you for your consideration. Josh Boies Sycamore