Democratic primary for Cook County State's Attorney remains too close to call
CHICAGO (CBS) -- The Democratic primary winner in the race for Cook County State's Attorney remained too close to call late Wednesday.
The two candidates as of late Wednesday were separated only by 9,000 votes. Meanwhile, in addition to over 100,000 mail-in ballots not yet counted, 20 precincts across Cook County had not yet reported their results as of 5 p.m. Wednesday.
Eileen O'Neill Burke – a former prosecutor, criminal defense attorney, and Illinois Appellate Court justice – held a narrow lead as of Wednesday afternoon over Clayton Harris III – a University of Chicago law school lecturer and former Cook County assistant state's attorney.
Burke had 51 percent of the vote compared with 49 percent for Harris.
The mail-in ballots were supposed to be counted on Thursday. But the two campaigns for State's Attorney wanted more time – and to be present when the process starts.
Thus, calculations will now begin on Friday. When they do, they will likely determine the tight race – but it could be the weekend before a winner is announced.
Burke ran a campaign as the more tough-on-crime candidate, while Harris has tried to appeal to votes by promising to keep the city safe while also ensuring people are treated fairly if they are arrested and prosecuted.
Both candidates said they would not be commenting on Wednesday. But their staff mentioned they were both optimistic as more votes are counted.
With mail-in voting becoming more and more popular, this race is a perfect example of how every vote counts. At the Board of Elections, they will have to count each mail-in vote as it comes in – and thousands of votes were still sealed late Wednesday.
"It is one of these situations that cause consternation after Election Night – of how many vote-by-mail ballots that are still out there," said Max Bever, director of public information for the Chicago Board of Elections.
Bever explained how all the outstanding votes are counted. He said many are likely from Democratic voters who cast primary ballots.
"It still gets treated the exact same way, with election judges present from both parties – Democratic and Republican – reviewing them, initialing them, putting them into a ballot scanner, having those results scanned, and then ultimately uploaded," said Bever.
The vast majority of the 109,000 outstanding mail-in ballots are coming from voters in the city of Chicago. As of Wednesday evening, there were 46,000 outstanding mail-in ballots outside the city.
"It's a bit of a question mark of how many of those are ultimately going to come back – and especially with a lower-turnout election like we just saw. In previous 2022 to 2023 elections, we saw about an 80% vote-by-mail return rate - pretty good - all the way up to about 85%," Bever said. "If that's any indication, I think out of the 109,000 number - if we're looking at like a lower turnout, or seeing how many are properly postmarked on time too – you're probably looking at a closer number of maybe 60,000 to 70,000 of those."
That still amounts to plenty of outstanding votes left to flip the script.
"Ultimately, when you've a low-turnout election, that's a vote-by-mail ballots that are outstanding and come back over this two-week period can make a difference," Bever said.
The winner in the Democratic primary will face off in November against two other candidates. Former Chicago Ald. Bob Fioretti was the only Republican running for the seat in Tuesday's election. Andrew Charles Kopinski was the lone Libertarian candidate on the ballot.
The candidates are vying to replace Kim Foxx, who is stepping down after two terms leading the second-largest prosecutor's office in the country.