Election judge suffers cardiac event, dies at polling place in McHenry County, Illinois

A 75-year-old man suffered a cardiac event and died Tuesday while working as an election judge in McHenry County, Illinois.

The McHenry County Coroner's office said it was called at 9:15 p.m. to investigate the death of Petter Culver of McHenry. Culver had been working as an election judge at Village Hull in McCullom Lake, Illinois, right outside the city of McHenry, when he suffered a cardiac event, according to the coroner's office.

McHenry County Clerk Joe Tirio told the coroner's office that the area would be secured as an investigator, coroner's Chief Deputy Olivia Zednick, came to the scene. After Zednick investigated, it was determined that Culver had died of natural causes.

County Clerk Tirio issued a statement Wednesday on Culver's death.

"Last night, as the polls closed and the final ballots were counted, we lost one of our own. Petter Culver passed away doing something he believed in deeply — serving his community as an election judge," Tirio wrote in the statement. "Petter gave years of faithful service to the Democratic Party and the democratic process in McHenry County. He served because he understood something that too many take for granted: freedom is not self-sustaining. It requires tending. It requires people willing to do the hard and unglamorous work of making democracy real – not just in theory, but in practice, one voter at a time."

Tirio emphasized that the work of an election judge is hard. The election judges arrive before dawn and work well past nightfall — 15 hours or more in total with little opportunity for breaks.

"Most of our judges are past the age of 65, and yet they lift equipment, set up polling places, navigate complicated procedures, and do it all with patience and professionalism," Tirio wrote. "They greet every voter, the grateful and the grumbling alike, with dignity. They absorb frustration that is not theirs to bear and they do not waver."

Tirio called Petter and other election judges "stalwart patriots."

"To every election judge serving McHenry County: we appreciate you. We honor you. What you do is sacred work," Tirio wrote. "And to Petter, who gave his last full measure of devotion not on a battlefield, but at a polling place in the community he loved, we say thank you. You did not just talk about democracy. You showed up for it, right until the very end. Rest now, Petter. Your work here is done, and it was done well."