As primary election night wraps up in Illinois, voters are still waiting for decisions in several major races.
While plenty of projected race winners were reported by the Associated Press, including contested Democratic primaries in Illinois' 4th and 7th congressional districts, two major races in the Chicago area remain uncalled.
According to Max Bever of the Chicago Board of Elections, this may be attributed to "shockingly low" turnout that was seen for the primary elections in Chicago.
Though voter turnout increased throughout the day, the citywide turnout was at just 20.24% before the counting of vote-by-mail ballots received Tuesday or later.
Because of this, there may be an increased reliance on the 109,975 mail-in ballots that remain outstanding, Bever said.
Bever estimates that 80% to 85% of these ballots are returned in a given election season, though he said that those numbers will likely be lower given the lower overall turnout seen on Tuesday.
Bever said the Board of Elections expects "70,000 to 80,000" of those ballots to ultimately be returned.
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This discrepancy has led to a standstill in results for two of this primary season's most contentious races - the Democratic primary for Cook County State's Attorney and the real estate transfer tax that was placed on Chicago voters' ballots.
As of 10:30 p.m. Tuesday, Eileen O'Neill Burke led Clayton Harris by just over 10,600 votes in the Cook County State's Attorney's race, with all but one of the outstanding precincts coming from within the city of Chicago.
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Harris led Burke by just under 5,000 votes within the city, while he trailed Burke by over 15,000 votes in the Cook County suburbs.
Though it's unknown how many outstanding mail-in ballots will be returned, the difference between Harris and Burke is well within the range of votes that have yet to be counted.
As for Chicago's proposed real estate transfer tax, the picture is a bit clearer despite the possibility that an official projection may not come Tuesday night.
"No" votes led "Yes" votes by over 23,000 ballots with around 98% of precincts reporting, showing a steep path ahead for supporters of the "Bring Chicago Home" referendum.
Though an official call has not come through, a statement from the Bring Chicago Home coalition called Tuesday's results "disappointing" while acknowledging the large amount of outstanding mail-in ballots.
"The Bring Chicago Home campaign exists in the long lineage of past and present struggles for fair housing, civil rights, and economic justice. While tonight’s election results are disappointing, we are nowhere near the end of our journey."
"There are still 100,000 outstanding mail-in ballots to be counted, but whatever the final count, one thing is abundantly clear tonight: how determined our opponents are to continue profiting from displacement and inequality. From landlords sending intimidating emails to tenants to a legal challenge attempting to invalidate the results, the realtors, corporate landlords, and mega-developers fought us at every turn," the statement said.
