Over 13K votes added to unofficial count; Cook County State's Attorney race still undecided
Democratic primary race for Cook County State’s Attorney remains too early to call after ballot fiasco
The Democratic primary race for Cook County State’s Attorney remains too early to call as of Sunday evening, after Clayton Harris III cut Eileen O’Neill Burke’s lead to slightly more than 2,000 votes out of 516,875 ballots counted.
CHICAGO - Ballot counting and signature verification continued Sunday after the Chicago Board of Elections admitted to leaving out more than 10,000 ballots from the unofficial Election Day count.
Max Bever, director of public information for the Chicago Board of Elections, said a total of 10,659 additional votes were added to the unofficial count on Saturday evening.
On Sunday, 13,107 additional votes were added to the unofficial count. This brings the current citywide turnout to 1,509,554 active registered voters.
"I made an error in reporting the number of Vote By Mail ballots received back on Monday, March 18 before Election Day that should have been included in the ‘received by Election Day’ numbers," Bever said on Saturday.
RELATED: Chicago Board of Elections admits error: Adds 10,659 votes to unofficial count
There are now 54,191 outstanding Vote by Mail ballots that have been unreturned or unrejected.
"We do not expect all of these to return back to the Board properly postmarked by the April 2nd deadline," Bever said.
As of Sunday, the Associated Press reports 96% of votes have been counted in the Cook County State's Attorney Democratic race. Eileen O'Neill Burke has 259,445 votes and Clayton Harris III has 257,430 votes. The race is still undecided with O’Neill Burke’s lead at slightly more than 2,000 votes out of 516,875 ballots counted.
The Chicago Board of Elections met with attorneys from both campaigns for Democratic candidates for Cook County State’s Attorney on Sunday morning, and all parties agreed that ballot counting and verifying of signatures could continue.
"Previously, I reported that 66,399 Vote By Mail ballots were received back and scanned for signature verification by the end of Monday, March 18. I initially reported that 7,009 VBM ballots received back via USPS on Election Day, 3/19/24. This number was incorrect - I only reported on the Vote By Mail ballots received back on Election Day only," Bever said.