The Democratic primary in the Cook County State’s Attorney’s race continued to tighten on Monday, but could a recount occur if the vote remains this close?
According to the latest updated numbers from the Chicago Board of Elections and Cook County election officials, retired Judge Eileen O’Neill Burke holds a lead of just 1,643 votes over former prosecutor Clayton Harris III, with more than 520,000 ballots cast in the race.
That lead has slowly shrunk in recent days, but as fewer votes are tabulated and added to those totals, questions of a potential recount have started to arise.
Illinois does not have laws on the books calling for automatic recounts in elections, according to Max Bever, spokesperson for the Chicago Board of Elections.
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Instead, the Harris campaign would have to request the recount, and would have five days to do so following the conclusion of vote counting. Under Illinois law, the campaign would have to pay for the undertaking, barring a judge’s decision to remove that responsibility.
“Illinois is not an automatic recount state, so it would be by request of the campaign," he said.
Bever also said that Illinois law requires candidates to have 95% of the vote of their opponents in order to request a recount, a threshold that Harris easily crosses.
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"Ultimately, the losing candidate would need 95% of the votes of the winning candidate, (and) given races that are this close, that’s pretty much well within the margin," Bever said. We’ll see where the vote totals are by the end of the counting period on April 2.”
Vote counting is still going on as more votes arrive via the U.S. Postal Service. Under Illinois law, mail-in ballots that were postmarked by March 19 and that are received by April 2 must legally be counted in the election, pending signature verification.
Harris has not requested a recount in the race, with both candidates hiring poll watchers to observe the counting process.
