Both candidates in the hotly contested Democratic primary for Cook County State’s Attorney remain hopeful that they will prevail as vote counting continues Thursday.
As of Thursday night, former Judge Eileen O’Neill Burke holds a lead of 8,152 votes over former prosecutor Clayton Harris III with more than 484,000 votes cast.
Burke held a lead of nearly 15,000 votes in suburban Cook County as of 5:22 p.m. Thursday, while Harris held a narrow lead of just under 8,000 votes in the city of Chicago.
According to the Chicago Board of Elections, approximately 25,723 vote-by-mail ballots were returned on Tuesday and on Wednesday, both via the board’s drop box on Tuesday and via the U.S. Postal Service on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Ballots that are postmarked by March 19 and received by April 2 are eligible to be counted in the election under Illinois law.
According to the Board, mail-in ballots will not be counted officially until Friday, with poll watchers from both the Harris and O’Neill Burke campaigns overseeing the counts.
The first batch of results from those counts is expected to be released on Friday night.
In addition to the ballots that have been returned, approximately 77,417 vote-by-mail ballots remain outstanding in the Democratic primary, officials said.