The closely watched race for Cook County state’s attorney between retired Judge Eileen O’Neill Burke and University of Chicago professor Clayton Harris remains too close to call as state officials City of Chicago and Cook County continue to process absentee ballots.
According to election officials, the updated totals showed O’Neill Burke with 259,445 votes and 50.20 percent of ballots cast, compared to Harris’ 257,430 votes and 49.80 percent. A total of 3,500 mail-in ballots have yet to be counted — 2,500 in the city and 1,000 in suburban Cook County, officials said.
On Saturday, O’Neill Burke had a greater advantage over Harris, with 4,771 more votes. At this point, O’Neill was up 50.47% – with 255,010 votes – to Harris’ 49.5% and 250,239 votes.
A spokesperson for the Chicago Board of Elections provided an update on mail-in ballot processing efforts Sunday evening, saying an additional 13,107 votes were added to the unofficial count throughout the day. As a result, the number of votes cast amounted to 382,097, representing a turnout of 25.31% citywide.
Questions were raised during the counting process, given the changing number of ballots pending and included. In a press release, a CBOE spokesperson explained that while adding up the mail-in ballots, it had accidentally missed additional ballots that had been delivered by the U.S. Postal Service on Monday.
The spokesperson said a total of 7,009 ballots were returned via the U.S. Postal Service Monday ahead of Election Day. An additional 9,143 ballots should have been included in that number, officials said.
According to the Chicago Board of Elections, all properly postmarked ballots have a two-week grace period to arrive.
“Under Illinois Election Code, all late-arriving but correctly postmarked mail-in ballots (before March 19) have a two-week window to be counted — and that would take us to April 2,” Max said , director of public information for the CBOE. Never said.
Who are the two candidates in the running?
The race for which Democrats will be on the November ticket for Cook County State’s Attorney has been closely watched, with O’Neill Burke and Harris seeking to replace incumbent Kim Foxx, who is not running for office. third term.
Clayton Harris is a professor of law at the University of Chicago and a former Cook County State’s Attorney. Eileen O’Neill Burke is also a former prosecutor, as well as a criminal defense lawyer and later appeals court judge.
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Both reached out to the Cook County Democratic Party and board chair Toni Preckwinkle to gain party support and endorsement, which ultimately went to Harris.
Former Ald. Bob Fioretti, who launched his bid for state attorney in 2020, was the only Republican on the ballot in this year’s election. He will also be joined on the ballot by Andrew Charles Kopinski, who will represent the Libertarian Party in November.
NBC Chicago
