 GOP gubernatorial candidate Bill Brady conceded last week after Gov.
Pat Quinn's lead grew to 20,000 votes. But several races, including
key races in Illinois Senate District 22 and the 8th Congressional
District, lack a clear winner.The 8th Congressional race between
incumbent Democrat Melissa Bean, D-Ill., and Republican challenger
Joe Walsh is too close to call. Walsh, who has declared himself the
victor, is up by 350 votes.
In the state Senate race in the 22nd District, incumbent Sen.
Michael Noland, D-Elgin, is leading former Republican state Sen.
Steven Rauschenberger by 400 votes.
Ken Menzel, Illinois State Board of Elections attorney, said all
the races, including those with a declared winner, will have to wait
for the local counties to produce a final tally.
"For the vast majority of the state, all of the counting will be
done two weeks after Election Day, which this time around is the
16th, when the last of the absentee ballots can possibly be
counted," he said.
Menzel said a few counties who missed the September deadline for
sending out military ballots will be given extra time to report
their results.
"We have a couple of jurisdictions where military ballot returns
were extended for a couple of days, so we'll have a few
jurisdictions here in Illinois that will go as late as the 19th," he
said.
Willard Helander, the county clerk in Lake County, said the tight
races in her area are creating more work for her, but she said she
is used to the postelection craziness.
"Well, we're busy, but we always are postelection," Helander
said. "People like to call and tell you that they couldn't find a
parking place or they didn't like the way someone looked at them, so
it's just the normal process."
Menzel said the official count from the State Board of Elections
will come on Dec. 3.
For most candidates, who won't be sworn in until January, the
vote certification process won't affect their term in office.
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But U.S. Rep. Mark Kirk, R-Ill., will have to wait until the vote
is certified to go to Washington to serve out the last few weeks of
President Barack Obama's term in the U.S. Senate. Former Gov. Rod
Blagojevich appointed Roland Burris to the seat following Obama's
presidential win, but the courts ruled that voters should pick
Obama's successor in a special election included on last week's
ballot.
Kirk was also elected to his own six-year term that will start in
January. Kirk supporters are anxious to get Kirk seated in the U.S.
Senate as quickly as possible, as his vote is important to any major
piece of legislation Congress tries to pass in a lame-duck session.
Menzel said the date to certify the results for the special
election has been moved up to make sure the transition is seamless.
"When the federal court ordered the special election be held,
they ordered a declaration of results that would attempt to give the
winner of that election as much time in the current Congress as
possible without truncating the amount of time needed for absentee
ballots to come in," he said.
[Illinois
Statehouse News; By JENNIFER WESSNER]
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