Clayton Harris III speaks at his election night party March 19 at Taste 222 in the West Loop. Harris is Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle’s pick to succeed Kim Foxx as Cook County state’s attorney. Eileen O’Neill Burke is a retired Illinois Appellate Court judge and a former Cook County assistant state’s attorney.
Ashlee Rezin (Harris) and Anthony Vazquez (O’Neill Burke)/Sun-Times files
The race for Cook County state’s attorney keeps getting closer as election officials in Chicago and the county tabulate additional mail-in ballots.
The latest totals show Clayton Harris III continuing to chip away at Eileen O’Neill Burke’s narrow lead. Only 1,643 votes separated the two after updates Monday from the Cook County clerk and the Chicago Board of Elections.
Based on the unofficial results, O’Neill Burke now leads Harris 50.16% to 49.84%. Harris won 56% of the mail-in votes cast in the city and 52% from the suburbs in the latest batch.
Harris and O’Neill Burke were separated by 2,015 votes after the city was done with its count Sunday. The two were separated by 4,771 votes after ballots were counted Saturday. Harris trailed by about 10,000 votes after Tuesday’s election.
Chicago election officials said there are 53,768 outstanding mail-in ballots that have not been returned. Officials don’t expect to get all of those back.
Chicago election officials processed and counted roughly 2,500 mail-in ballots Monday. The county election board, which processes suburban mail-in ballots separately, added about 3,000 mail-in and provisional ballots to its tally Monday afternoon.
On Saturday, city election officials announced that roughly 10,000 votes were added to the unofficial count. Max Bever, Chicago Board of Elections spokesperson, said in a statement that he had mistakenly left out ballots received by mail on the evening of March 18, a day before the primary, in previous totals.
Both campaigns had poll watchers present during counting Sunday and Monday.
In a statement, O’Neill Burke’s campaign said, “We have a vigilant team of volunteers, lawyers and retired judges who are watching the vote count process at the Board of Elections very closely.”
The Harris campaign said Sunday: “As the votes are processed and the margin in this race continues to shrink, we are watching closely and evaluating our options.”
City election officials have also issued a correction regarding provisional ballots.
A board staff member initially logged the incorrect number of provisional ballots received on election day, reporting 2,882 ballots instead of 1,882, Bever said Monday.
Staff have since performed an updated hand count, determining there were 1,991 provisional ballots from election day and early voting. Those ballots have not been added to the unofficial tally.
Harris is an attorney with party backing. O’Neill Burke is a former appellate judge. O’Neill Burke led in fundraising, in part with money from top Republican donors, but Harris had numerous endorsements, including from labor unions and progressive and establishment Democrats.
The race is open because Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx decided not to seek a third term. It was among the most spirited and competitive contests in the March 19 Illinois primary.
The winner of the Democratic primary is expected to win outright in November. Republican former-Chicago Ald. Bob Fioretti and Libertarian Andrew Charles Kopinski are also running.
Contributing: Associated Press