Clayton Harris III speaks at his election night party at Taste 222 in the West Loop, Tuesday, March 19, 2024. Eileen O’Neill Burke waits to walk on stage at her election night watch party at the RPM event space in River North, Tuesday, March 19, 2024.
Ashlee Rezin and Anthony Vazquez/Sun-Times
As many as 100,000 votes or more are still to be counted in the close race for Cook County state’s attorney, and it will likely be days before a winner is declared in Tuesday’s Democratic primary.
Two dozen precincts in the city have not reported their totals yet in the race between Eileen O’Neill Burke and Clayton Harris III. Election officials said judges in those precincts left before the results were “properly transmitted.”
No other details were released, but officials hoped the votes will be counted by Thursday.
The Associated Press said around 80,000 ballots could have been cast in those precincts. As of Wednesday afternoon, less than 10,000 votes separated Burke and Harris.
Election officials said there could also be as many as 109,000 mail-in ballots still waiting to be counted from Chicago voters. In the suburbs, election officials say as many as 46,000 mail-in ballots were waiting to be counted.
Most results from mail-in votes will likely be known by Friday, but election officials said votes could continue to trickle in for at least two weeks.
Neither Burke nor Harris has declared victory or conceded defeat.
In emails sent out the day after the election, both candidates thanked their supporters and volunteers while urging them to be patient as the “democratic process” unfolds.
Burke, a retired appellate justice, told supporters she was hopeful, grateful and “cautiously optimistic.”
“We carried the lead in votes all night, and we’re cautiously optimistic that will remain,” she wrote. “It’s critical that we allow our democratic process to continue.’
About 10 minutes later, the Harris campaign sent his own update to the campaign’s mailing list.
“We are within 9,500 votes of Eileen O’Neill Burke, and the margin between us has been consistently shrinking,” Harris said, promising “to make sure every single vote is counted.”
Burke took an early lead Tuesday night based on her strong showing the suburbs, where she ended up with an eight-point lead. But as the night wore on, votes in the city chipped away at the gap between the candidates. Harris eventually took the lead in the city vote, with 51.1% to Burke’s 48.9%.
With the city and suburbs combined, Burke was leading Harris 50.9% to 49.1% with 84% of the estimated vote counted Wednesday evening, according to the Associated Press.
Harris, who had the backing of the county’s Democratic Party, appeared to do well in areas of the city that voted in favor of changes to the real estate transfer tax pushed by the Democratic mayor.
His support appeared to track closely with State’s Attorney Kim Foxx in her last primary against Ald. Bill Conway (34th).
Like Foxx, Harris outperformed his opponent on the city’s South and West sides. Harris also won areas that have recently gone for progressive candidates, including North Side neighborhoods along the lakefront, but did not appear to perform as well as Foxx had.
While some of the wards tilted heavily to either Burke or Harris, the results in the 44th Ward showed the race was within a point, despite progressive Ald. Angela Clay winning that City Council seat by more than 10 points only last year.
Despite losing to Burke in the suburbs, Harris actually fared slightly better than Foxx did when she won the 2020 primary against Conway.
The alderman finished in second place in the suburbs, splitting the anti-Foxx vote with two other Democrats — including former Ald. Bob Fioretti, who is the Republican nominee for state’s attorney this year.
Foxx got just over 43% of the suburban Democratic vote that year.