Four days after the polls closed and as more Chicago mail-in ballots were counted Saturday, Eileen O’Neill Burke held a lead of just about 4,800 votes over opponent Clayton Harris III in the Cook County state’s attorney Democratic primary.
With potentially thousands of mail-in ballots still outstanding, the Associated Press has not declared a winner. Nor has either candidate declared victory or conceded defeat.
Tens of thousands of Chicago and Cook County suburban ballots have been totaled in recent days and with those counts Harris has slowly narrowed the gap with O’Neill Burke. While on Election Day she held a lead of more than 10,000 votes, Saturday’s results put the two at 4,771 votes apart, according to the Chicago Board of Elections and Cook County Clerk.
Chicago election officials tallied roughly 9,400 Democratic votes in the race Saturday. Of those, Harris secured about 61%.
City election officials also announced Saturday there was another influx of roughly 10,000 to 11,000 ballots, both Democratic and Republican, that will be counted on Sunday. That volume is unexpected given previous estimates of returned ballots from the Chicago Board of Elections. It reflects ballots that were received at the board via mail late Monday but not included in previously reported totals.
Max Bever, spokesman with the Chicago Board of Elections, took responsibility for mistakenly leaving out additional ballots that had been received via the mail on Monday, the day before Election Day. Those ballots have been under lock and key at the board’s headquarters since Monday at 69 W. Washington, he said.
“In adding up the total number of Vote By Mail ballots the Board had received back so far, I mistakenly left out additional ballots that had been received back via USPS (United States Postal Service) the evening of Monday, March 18,” Bever said in a late Saturday statement. Mail-in ballots can be sent to the board either through the mail or by dropping them in secured drop boxes located throughout the city. Bever said the Sunday count will include the 10,000 to 11,000 ballots the board received via mail Monday as well as a number of ballots received via drop boxes.
“I traded speed for accuracy in reporting out numbers this week as quickly as I could. I truly regret this error on my part and for the confusion that it has caused the voters of Chicago. I will share updated numbers only when they are accurate and verified,” Bever said, adding that both Harris and O’Neill Burke’s campaigns were informed and will be “present throughout additional counting” on Sunday.
The addition of such a large volume of ballots changed the calculus for both campaigns. On Friday, it appeared when combining the remaining ballots with the trendline of returns, Harris’ chances of overtaking O’Neill Burke were slim. The additional ballots means his window is now slightly wider.
So far, mail-in ballots have favored Harris, with about 58% of all mail-ins going toward the progressive’s campaign.
In a statement, Harris campaign manager Alaina Hampton said, “Given the narrowing margin in this race, and the votes newly added to the total, we will continue to monitor the counting, and will determine how to proceed at the appropriate time.”
The contest to lead the second-largest prosecutor’s office in the nation has been one of the most closely watched of this year’s primary cycle and a barometer of whether local Democrats favor a return to the office’s historic tough-on-crime approach.
The latest results came after another busy day of processing and scanning mailed-in ballots at the Chicago Board of Elections. The board reported results Friday from roughly 11,000 Democratic ballots.
It remains unclear from election officials how many mail-in ballots are still coming.
There are approximately 77,000 outstanding Democratic ballots between the city and suburbs, according to the latest numbers shared by election officials. And about 50,000, or 65%, of those outstanding ballots are from city voters.
It also remains unclear how many mail-in votes will be returned over the next 10 days. But election officials have stressed they do not expect all to be returned. Incoming ballots from the U.S. Postal Service have slowed since Wednesday. The further away from Election Day, the higher the chance that ballots may be postmarked too late and not counted as well.
“Some that are being returned back within these drops now, aren’t properly postmarked,” Bever said Friday. “So the truth is we might get more ballots back but they might not have been properly postmarked.”
Since Election Day, both candidates have stayed largely quiet and asked for supporters’ patience as the count continues.
In addition to the city’s Sunday results, the Cook County Clerk, which handles suburban county votes, is expected to report more results at the end of the day Monday. Both the clerk and the city election board will continue counting properly postmarked ballots through April 2.
