Quinn remains defiant, refuses to concede

Gov. Pat Quinn emerged at the Hotel Allegro at about 11:20 p.m. to roaring cheers.

“We believe in democracy and making sure that when you vote in an election, every vote counts. There’s a lot of votes still to be counted,” Quinn said, as the crowd screamed “Count every vote,” after he spoke.

“We were here four years ago and in that election there were a lot of votes that weren’t counted on election night. They had to be counted in the next couple of days,” Quinn said of his 2010 battle against state Sen. Bill Brady in which Brady, a Republican, lost by 32,000 votes. ”Every vote counted and so it wasn’t until Friday after the election that the votes were really certain. So I think the prudent thing to do on behalf of democracy in Illinois…The prudent thing to do is to thank all of the people who voted today. They exercised their fundamental right to participate in our democracy and they’re entitled to make sure that the election in every single single county including Chicago and Cook County count their votes.”

“It could either come in tomorrow, the next day probably the next day,” he said. ”Until that…I don’t think we should make any judgment in the result of this election.”