Mail ballots whittle O'Neill Burke's lead over Harris in state's attorney race for 6th straight day

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Eileen O’Neill Burke’s razor’s edge lead over Clayton Harris III in the Democratic primary for Cook County state’s attorney is now down to less than a third of a percentage point.

The latest batches of city and suburban ballots reported on Monday left O’Neill Burke only 1,643 votes ahead of Harris —nearly a week after the polls closed.

Based on the unofficial results, O’Neill Burke, a retired appellate court justice, now leads Harris, a university lecturer, 50.16% to 49.84%. The mail ballots trickling in since last Tuesday have consistently narrowed O’Neill Burke’s margin.

On Monday, Harris won 56% of the mail-in votes cast in the city and 52% from the suburbs in the latest batch reported by the Chicago Board of Election Commissioners and the Cook County clerk.

Shortly after the polls closed last Tuesday, Harris trailed by about 10,000 votes. By Saturday, only 4,771 separated the two Democrats, dropping down to 2,015 votes after the city was done with its count Sunday.

Neither candidate has declared victory, nor conceded defeat.

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City and suburban election officials plan to keep counting ballots until April 2, as long as they were post marked no later than last Tuesday.

Chicago election officials said there are 53,768 outstanding mail-in ballots that have not been returned. Officials don’t expect all of those to be completed and returned.

Chicago election officials processed and counted roughly 2,500 mail-in ballots Monday. The county election board, which processes suburban mail-in ballots separately, added about 3,000 mail-in and provisional ballots to its tally Monday afternoon.

On Saturday, city election officials announced that roughly 10,000 votes were added to the unofficial count. Max Bever, spokesperson for the Chicago Board of Election Commissioners, said in a statement that he had mistakenly left out ballots received by mail on the evening of March 18, a day before the primary, in previous totals.

Both campaigns had poll watchers present during counting Sunday and Monday.

In a statement, O’Neill Burke’s campaign said, “We have a vigilant team of volunteers, lawyers and retired judges who are watching the vote count process at the Board of Elections very closely.”

The Harris campaign said Sunday: “As the votes are processed and the margin in this race continues to shrink, we are watching closely and evaluating our options.”

City election officials have also issued a correction regarding provisional ballots.

A board staff member initially logged the incorrect number of provisional ballots received on election day, reporting 2,882 ballots instead of 1,882, Bever said Monday.

Staff have since performed an updated hand count, determining there were 1,991 provisional ballots from election day and early voting. Those ballots have not been added to the unofficial tally.

Harris had the crucial backing of the Cook County Democratic Party, led by Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle. O’Neill Burke led in fundraising.

The two are vying to succeed Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx, who opted not to seek a third term after winning both praise and criticism for her handling of the office. Foxx, Preckwinkle’s former chief of staff, said last week that the tight margin between O’Neill Burke and Harris shows there is “not a mandate, if you will, to roll things back.”

The winner of the Democratic primary is a heavy favorite in November. Democrats have held the office since 1996. Republican former Ald. Bob Fioretti and Libertarian Andrew Charles Kopinski are also running.